AIG Morie Lenghor
I felt very much astonished when I learnt yesterday that AIG Morie Lenghor will be retiring from the Sierra Leone Police after forty (40) years of unblemished, non partisan and meritorious service to the Sierra Leone Police and the nation as a whole.
The Force will miss Mr. Morie Lenghor for a number of reasons, especially at a time when the Force is surrounded by alleged suspicions of being political and non partisan in the discharge of their duties by a very good number of Sierra Leoneans.
Former Inspector General of Police, British born Keith Biddle, in a very solemn letter, congratulated Mr. Morie Lenghor for what he refered to as his particular efforts, together with Richard Moigbeh, current IGP, in bringing about a more professional approach to police misconduct and effective investigation and resolution of many cases impartially during the post war restructuring period.
With my few years in the Sierra Leone Police, and especially so with the privilege I got to interact with the top cadre of the Police, I was able to know AIG Lenghor to be quite open and frank to the rank and file of the Police devoid of where you come from. His service has always been guided by the traditional procedures of using government property. I could remember him coming to work everyday with his own vehicle and only using his assigned Police vehicle on official functions while his colleague senior officials would stay tight glued to their official vehicles even on weekends. His driver, Inspector Bayoh, was virtually in charge of the vehicle.
A very senior officer, who has got the opportunity to sit with AIG Lenghor at Executive Management Board meetings of the Sierra Leone Police, has once confided in me that AIG Lenghor was the only senior police officer who is on record to have dissociated himself from a number of decisions his colleague officers took at Executive Management Board meetings.
I vividly remember him as a Constable of the Police attached to the ‘Think tank’ of the SLP (Corporate Services) when I was co-opted into the Sierra Leone Police Magazine Committee to do the maiden edition of the SLP bulletin.
The Committee, under AIG Amadu Mannah, tasked me to conduct an exclusive interview with Mr. Morie Lenghor against the background that I was a final year Honours student reading Mass Communications & Public Relations at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.
Mr. Lenghor was immediately posted as AIG Operations just after he returned home in 2011 from Nigeria after serving ECOWAS for a year. It was no doubt that he came back home with laurels and he was immediately able to introduce in the SLP a number of innovations and projects, which included the Community Service Volunteers wherein a huge number of youths were recruited from communities to work alongside Police patrol teams and the Police Community Relations Department personnel across the country to provide vital intelligence to Police operations.
This initiative was introduced against an alarming high rate of armed robbery that had gripped the country prior to his return home from ECOWAS. He told me that this is a policing model that he had copied from the Nigerian Police.
The international assignment, which made the Sierra Leone Police proud, was just one among the many he undertook while in the Police as he could also be remembered for jointly supporting the Special Court for Sierra Leone and in the investigation of war crime offences against a good number of war indictees.
This period was also very crucial in the history of the Police in that Brima Acha Kamara, the gentleman who co-spearheaded the Change Management and Post War restructuring process of the Police, was about to take the exit door after having served for eight (8) years.
The challenge of getting a replacement was quite herculean for the APC government that was almost completing their first term in office after winning the 2007 elections. AIG Lenghor was the favourite of the then IGP Acha Kamara to replace him.
Anyone critical of this piece would want to ask why I had such an inclination but the most vivid evidence was that AIG Morie Lenghor was left as Ag. IGP by Acha Kamara when the substantive travelled abroad just before he left office.
There was hue and cry within the SLP top management that he could be bestowed with such a noble position. I remember asking him the question about what he thinks about the rank and file favoring him to replace Acha Kamara as the new IGP. He smiled and asked me to convey his thanks to those personnel who are thinking that way.
By then the second and third next in line to Acha Kamara, Deputy Inspector General, Oliver Somassa and Mrs. Kadie Fakondoh were both serving on international assignments abroad in the United Nations. How it all ended to choose a successor to Acha Kamara remains history. But, anyway, he had remained a very loyal and committed officer to the Organisation even after this period.
He has times without number said no to politicians who wanted him to do otherwise when he occupied the position of AIG Crime Services exclusively, dealing with criminal investigations across the country.
AIG Morie Lenghor has always been nationalistic and one would hardly know his tribe except for his name. He is a very good listener and has motivated quite a good number of brilliant young individuals in the Sierra Leone Police, largely because he believed in competence. With all positive attributes, himself and the current IGP worked very hard in setting the initial stage for the establishment of the Complaint, Discipline and Internal Investigations structure of the Police.
One would go on and on to describe the positive attributes of Mr. Lenghor just as Keith Biddle stated in his letter that he could write so much more in praise of AIG Morie Lenghor.
The Police would miss Mr. Morie Lenghor as a true epitome of a professional Policeman that the country needs. He is leaving very proudly with a wealth of local and international experience.
It is my fervent hope that President Bio would utilize the services of this decent and professional gentleman in any area worth serving in our nation. The country is in short supply of this kind of people.
I wish you a happy retired life, sir.
The author of this piece is a former Police Constable -Ralph Simeon Sesay (Ex-PC 8787 Sesay R.S.) who served the Police from August 2013 to March 2012, basically at the Corporate Services Department PHQ. 076336213/030317197 ralphsimeonsesay@yahoo.com