By Ilyasa Baa
“It could be easily established that those arrested after our sport on Wednesday organized at the Technical Training Complex field, Kissy Dockyard in Freetown by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Secondary School are not pupils of the school”, said the acting Principal of the Senior School, Jibao Kai Banya
He made this disclosure during an exclusive interview with A-Z newspaper following reports that people lost their items while a large crowd of youths was moving towards the eastern part of Freetown.
According to Adama Sesay, in the Dockyard community, she was seating in her verandah when she saw some youths dressed like school goers and entered her premises.
As she was trying to raise alarm, one of the youths grabbed her bag which contained her android mobile phone and some cash.
A trader along Bai Bureh Road explained that she rushed to close her shop and the few things that they were not able to put inside like the benches were destroyed by the disgruntled youths.
Over sixty police officers and fifteen military officers plus Anti-Violence Marshals took control of security which to a large extent resulted in calm inside the field but certain pupils who refused to be subjected to the rigorous search mechanism put in place by the school administration to curb violence during the sport.
These youths mainly from Muslim Congress and High School moved away from the gate of the field and gathered near Ahmadiyya, incidentally, they approached the Principal that they were not allowed to watch the sport.
They were advised to join the queue so they would gain access to the field. They did not listen to the Principal’s advice only to resort to pelting of stones creating panic and disruption of business that Wednesday evening.
The Officer in Charge of Kissy Dockyard Police Post, ASP Esther Kefason said they were on top of the security situation because they were well prepared for any occurrence or what so ever. “Anyone we captured, we sent straight into custody at the Kissy Mess Mess Police Station,” she informed, adding that they teamed up with Mess Mess officers to expedite the arrest of those perpetuators of violence. She could not give the actual number of those arrested since it was done in beats.
The acting Principal, Jibao Kai Banya has denied that they the pupils were well under control. He admitted that after the sport, happy hour was done at the school campus so that the pupils would chill and avoid any form of riot. “We played music for them all through so they would enjoy themselves”, he noted adding that their pupils are easy to distinguish being that they are not allowed to carry high barb or wear any king of shoes.
It could be recalled that in 2019, pupils of Ahmadiyya rioted with the police leading to the prosecution of pupils of the school some of whom were arrested by the police during classes. However, it could be noticed that the dynamics have change in terms of discipline over the years mainly due to the stance of the school authority which has nurtured a zero tolerance to any form of indiscipline.