By: Precious Miracle Kargbo
The minister of internal affairs, Retired Major General David Taluva on maintaining the matching order, sanity and orderliness of the state, has given a strict warning to all and sundry with the hope of taking robust actions against lawlessness and drug abuse in the country.
Minister, Retired Major General David Taluva made this statement during an interview on Monday 28th August 2023, at the broadcasting house of radio democracy, New England Ville Freetown.
In his opening remarks, he cited that the major internal problems in Sierra Leone currently are narrowed down to lawlessness, political instability which is now causing a lot of tension in the country, cyber bullying and drug abuse. General Taluva quickly reminded, on President Bio’s statement which reads “if we allow the issue of Kush to continue then we don’t have any future as a nation”.
Meanwhile, Major Taluva firmly reassures that series of actions which involves the arrest of Kush manufacturers and peddlers have been made over quite some time now and they are teaming up with the police to ensure that these culprits face the full wrath of the law.
“The chain of investigation is to catch smokers of Kush, these smokers will in turn show the sellers and the sellers finally will reveal the manufacturers”, he said.
The Minister maintains that the President has set up a cabinet to look into the issue of internal affairs problems especially with Kush to be looked upon.
“we are taking a multi-sectorial approach involving all security departments and institutions to tackle down these issues internally by not only bringing to book the manufacturers and traders of these harmful drugs but by also providing counselling and phsyco-social support to these victims. Lawlessness is not a peculiar issue in Sierra Leone and the only distinct with lawlessness and sierra Leoneans is that they take it to the extreme”. Minister Taluva says.
The Minister furthers that, lawlessness is motivated by various factors which hails from the political lens, criminal lens, poor parenting lens and many other types of lawlessness and they are working tirelessly to tackle them holistically and to make society a better place for everyone to live in.
Constructively, the Minister says robust actions are now in effective display against minor offences that are committed and if anyone is found wanting and guilty of any lawlessness act “the offender will be tried within two hours of that crime”. He says this immediate action is to prevent ‘Godfathers’ to influence these cases as it is used to be, because the longer a case takes the more interest it becomes to these ‘Godfathers’.
On addressing the issues of motorbikes in the central business district (CBD’s), Minister Taluva affirms that he has gotten series of engagement with bike riders and the SLRA to ensure swift understanding on all sides and he maintains a principle of “if you want to buy it, buy it hard”.
In addendum, Retired Major Taluva reminded that the law for all vehicle, bikes and tricycles that are parked in streets with no essence will be effected on the 1st of September 2023.
He says this drive is to lessen the amount of accidents that have been happening on public streets especially at night when abandoned cars are hit because of the rain which later results into serious injuries and sometimes death. An accident in Ferry junction last week Friday is a clear example of how lawlessness is really creeping down our country.
He went on to state that consultation with the ministry of transport and the military is in place to start this operation. Minister Taluva says there is no small act of lawlessness and that the Ministry of defense is willing and determined to take actions against all form of lawlessness.
The Minister concludes that he is not influenced by any politicians or connections and is ready to fight to the end of any case which includes lawlessness, and noted that ministers or politicians are not exempted because nobody is above the Law.