By: Precous Miracle Kargbo (Intern)
The Minister of Internal Affairs (Rtd) General David Taluva confirms that Sierra Leone is a very peaceful and law abiding country, and made this statement during an interview with radio Democracy, New England Ville Freetown, on 4th September 2023.
The Minister laments in his opening statement that Sierra Leoneans impressed him during the course of the operation ‘Zero Tolerance’ that was slated to begin on the 1st September 2023. He said “most of the people did not allow the law enforcers to even start their operations and they have fully complied by taking their vehicles out from the road, which was very good, the only ones that are found in the streets now are cars that needs to be towed off the street by the SLRSA towing vehicles which are experiencing some mechanical failures, but almost every car has been removed from the highway by their owners according to all round operation that we conducted”.
He affirms that if there won’t have been any compliance from these vehicle owners then they would have been removed by force. Retired General Taluva maintains that Sierra Leoneans showed the highest level of patriotism by working carefully and obeying the laws being set and even those that still need their vehicles to be towed off the road ensured a very respectful dialogue with the law enforcers that when the towing trucks are fixed then they will comply fully to ensure these trucks are removed from the streets and highways.
The Minister explains that “there are no issues with bike riders or truck drivers as long as they obey and comply with the laws; there is no issue to go after someone if they comply with the law”.
On addressing and clarifying the issue of crash helmets with bike riders, the Minister confirms that for bike riders crash helmets is mandatory but for passengers it is optional because this is a result of the health hazards it carries and especially during the course of the covid-19 which created a huge tension throughout world. Covid-19 has still not been declared over by any health practitioner so it is important that we continue to maintain this health precaution, but if the passenger can afford their personal helmets then that will be very good for their safety, General Taluva says.
Lawlessness is a very wide topic that must be addressed in the country and that is why we have commenced our operation through the ambits of Freetown to ensure that all our streets are totally clean from all these dumped vehicles and this operation started from western area right through Calaba town, but we noticed is that most of the vehicles have been cleared and that shows and high level of compliance and lawfulness.
Conclusively, the minister said “we are not an institution that takes advantage on citizens but we are here to ensure compliance of laws internally and if citizens of the country appeals and complies to law then we all will continue to engage and work for other common purposes, nobody has proven lawlessness and if they do we will surely deal with you how you prove yourself to be”.
The ministry of internal affairs is not a bullying ministry if people comply to our directives then there will be no need to go against them; the Operation Zero tolerance will continue and will take its stead till the streets are totally safe for all users and to be traffic free.