The Office of National Security is engaging regional security actors, Paramount Chiefs and politicians across the different regions in the country amidst the unfolding heightened security situation.
According to the spokesperson of the ONS and the Joint Central Security Intelligence Coordinator, Mr. Langobah Kailie, the move is sanctioned by the National Security Coordinating Group, which remains the highest security cadre in the country. This follows a threat assessment of the security situation in the country.
He noted that the country’s security situation is currently challenged as a result of the poor relationship between Paramount Chiefs and their subjects, activities of secret societies, high incidences of rape, smuggling of precious minerals across our porous borders and the Commissions of Inquiry.
These issues, he went on, are serious challenges which continue to create very serious security situations. And they have the tendency to derail the peace. The meeting, the ONS mouthpiece disclosed, is engaging Paramount Chief through the Regional Security Committees, chaired by the respective Resident Ministers, to further assess these challenging issues especially in their own regions.
This, he continued, will culminate into a report that will be presented to NSCCG for immediate action.
It will be recalled that the forthcoming Commissions of Inquiry and the activities of secret societies, in the east of the country, have created tensions leading to demonstrations and deaths and displacement of people. In the case of secret societies the Government was obliged to declare a ban on all of them as a temporal measure.
It is the view of many Sierra Leoneans, just like the US Embassy, the major security players like the police lack the wherewithal to fight very serious crimes in the country. This has also been corroborated by the current tour of the ONS across the country.
Whether a mere tour across the country will cool down the current tensions, even as a whole ECOWAS delegation has visited the country thrice to mediate between the government and the opposition APC, remains a million dollar question.