CHRDI Condemns on Makeni Riot as Unfortunate

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Executive Director

The Executive Director of CHRDI, Abdul M. Fatoma has condemned the Makeni sage as unfortunate misfortune which took place over the weekend.

The Director said every citizen in this country has the right to demonstrate and protest against the government, but said the government always feels aggrieved in putting such behavior.

 He revealed that the Makeni local council should have been the first to give confirmed information to the people about the incident before the government through the Ministry of Energy would have given their own side of the issue. And said now the issue has now turned to blame games.

He further revealed that, the authorities concerned have deprived the people the true story, because the government and the stakeholders in Makeni are all giving different sides if the story.

He explained that the 1964 and 65 public order Act that gives excess power to the Sierra Leone police has to be changed. He gave examples of countries like South Africa and Uganda that have reviewed their Acts that gives excessive powers to the police.

Director Fatoma said the political appointments is a key problem on some public offices that has to operate  independently, like the Sierra Leone police and other institutions that should work independently for the citizens of Sierra Leone. He said to avoid conflict of interest; such appointments should not come from the government.

“We lost many lives in that part of the country and that is a serious issue that government has to take into consideration”. He said.

Mr Fatoma said politicians have been using youths to destabilize and destroy properties in the country, but has not created any national welfare for the young people in the country.

He said even though government has created many developmental programmes for the youth, he said government should follow other countries to start learning the youths on coding and innovation.

In concluding, he said parliament should have taken the responsibility of appointing some of these public positions, especially the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) or the Police Council.

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