March 30, 2021
By: Ilyasa Baa
The action of the Inspector General of Police, Ambrose Sovula over the theft of electricity cables has great implications.
It is not only laudable that he has done the magnanimous in promoting the young OSD officer from Constable to Sergeant, but the action is going to serve as deterrent measure to curtail electricity cable theft.
I.G. Sovula has used the powers vested in him to promote 13141 Kabia for professionally capturing Osman Kamara at Kingtom in the West end of Freetown. The thief was caught on the height which means that there is nothing to prove.
Investigation mounted by the SLP has indicated that Osman was not working alone in such dastardly activity. The thief now in police custody has promised the I.G. to cooperate in naming his accomplices. This is positive development for the country that has been disturbed by the brand of criminal conduct in sabotaging the distribution and generation of power.
The cable theft has been a challenging issue the authorities have been grappling with in checkmating unscrupulous individuals engaged what many see as a lifeline considering the high demand for cooper.
Our investigations have discovered that a kilo of cooper costs forty to fifty thousand Leones and this high price had enticed youths into the underground deal, disregarding the impact to wider public.
What is hard to come to terms with is the question: what if there is current in the cables at the time of their operation? The answer is simple: it will lead to instantaneous and untimely death.
The theft of cables, it is realized, has negatively impacted the operations of EDSA as millions of Leones have been diverted to replacing those stolen cables. The resultant effect has been light outage in many communities across the country. This is an issue many citizens have failed to appreciate blaming the problem on government.
This cable theft arrest must therefore serve as a wake up for citizens to be on the watch out in in protecting EDSA’s properties including transformers installed in the communities. When the stealing of the EDSA power supply facilities are minimized if not eradicated we are bound to see a corresponding improvement in power distribution.
The war on cable theft is one fight police officers are going to take seriously seeing how it paid their colleagues- being promoted for the first time since he joined the force. It is now vividly clear to officers that going after cable thieves leads to immediate promotion and this is going to make them work harder in securing EDSA properties.
According to the Inspector General, he has a desire to uplift the Force from its current abysmal status to one of envy.” I owe a duty to God Almighty, the nation and my conscience to be realistic”, he had stated on assuming the top position, adding that with the challenges he inherited, he is confident that with collective responsibility in partnership with our local communities’ and the established Police Partnership Boards nationwide, efforts could be mobilized to restore public confidence within the Police.
The public, especially the Kingtom community would remain grateful to that officer for such an exposure and it is considered that he will get more promotions if he continues to clamp down on cable theft.
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