When the SLPP Headquarters was brutally invaded in broad daylight in the capital city by H.E. President Dr. Ernest Koroma’s Bodyguards and ruling APC party members, the fear amongst a significant section of the citizenry was that civil unrest would break out as it was unimaginable to many for such unprovoked assault not to have borne equal and opposite reaction from SLPP Partisans.
John Oponjo Benjamin: Going by Rules of Civilisation
However, the new SLPP Chairman, John Oponjo Benjamin has been outstanding in his display of coolheaded maturity.
The likes of the SLPP’s Professor Kelfala Kallon has mistaken John Benjamin’s maturity to be weakness but what Benjamin has ensured is for SLPP members to continue to ‘play the game’ by the rules of democracy and civilisation. JOB has preached peace (water) where others have poured hate (fire) but most of all, JOB is displaying a strong belief in the Rule of the Law against the Law of the Jungle.
This is why this newspaper has nothing but applause for JOB’s April 20th letter he dispatched to the CDIID of Police Headquarters. That is the way to go Mr. Benjamin! Remind us all about the structures set in place by the former SLPP Gov’t to ensure a cessation of abuse of power.
The CDIID was set up by the SLPP of Dr. Tejan Kabbah to investigate any act of indiscipline by a serving police officer including, even the Inspector General of Police! CDIID should act as an independent means of checks and balances in the Sierra Leone Police.
The Director of the CDIID, if left unfettered to carry out his duties, should have by now, without being told what to do, acted in a manner that would have assured the populace that the democratic, civilised Sierra Leone left behind by former President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, was still standing tall.
If, it is however proven that F.U.K. Daboh is presently being constrained from fully carrying out his mandate as Director of the CDIID, then one will be left with no option but to believe that one of the reasons for which the International Criminal Court gets involved in an otherwise national matter, is STRONGLY AT PLAY in Sierra Leone: i.e: State-sanctioned crimes are not only being planned and perpetuated against innocent civilians but justice is being wilfully suppressed by the State (in this case by Sierra Leone Police).
After all the efforts and money spent by the International Community to stabilise this country and after the ongoing Special Court Trials which indicted even a sitting President like Charles Taylor, if indeed F.U.K. Daboh cannot carry out his duties, what a shame it would be to the people of Sierra Leone, the United Nations and the entire International Community. What a shame indeed!
© Copyright by Awareness Times
Newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
