Videos of 32 Kush-destitute buried in what looks like a mass grave exposed weak links in the law enforcement agencies with the police taking a fair share of the blame.
Kush, a widely harmful drug, has taken a heavy death toll among Sierra Leonean youth population and the courts are overwhelmed with matters relating to the drug.
Wonders about the place of origin of the narcotic go on unabated, but cursory investigation has shown that the drug has its origin outside the country. However, digging of graves and exhuming remains of corpses to bones used to add to the drug’s potency is almost a routine for the youth in Freetown.
Hardly a day passes by without the courts handing down a verdict convicting a ‘kush’ addict, possessor, peddler or trafficker. However, the menace is still threatening the country with the death statistics rolling at every tick of the clock.
It goes without saying that the men-women ration would continue to worsen to disproportionate levels if stiff measures are not taken to the stem the tide of the drug’s inflow into the country. The 2015 National Census puts the men-women ratio at 48 and 52 respectively, and there is fear among women that male population will continue to shrink owing to the drug abuse.
In several communities in Freetown, stakeholders hold meetings with the youth educating them about the negative effects of the drug.
At Tree Planting community, the ‘NO MORE KUSH’ campaign is intensifying there with a vow to get rid of Kush addicts, but it is not known how long the campaign would last.
Other communities in Freetown suggest that state farms must be established to send city idlers to the provinces to till the land since agriculture is now the new government’s flagship project.
But, such move again has human rights implications, but it all borders on the extent to which government can make agriculture attractive and lucrative.
As communities stakeholders scratch their heads for solutions to the crime, the police who bear the responsibility of preventing, detecting and investigating crime appear not taking responsibility as they shift the blame to other sister law agencies.
Police Chief, William Fayia Sellu recently hit out at Justice Ministry and the judiciary for not doing enough to blaze the trail in the anti-Kush campaign.
He singled out the Director of Public Prosecutions for entrusting the prosecution of ‘kush’ to hands of weak lawyers so that offenders can be let off the hook.
Mr Sellu also accused magistrates of handing down lenient punishment to ‘Kush’ convicts who spend short jail terms and come out to commit the same crimes again.
Police allegation against law officials is tough imputing complicity on the part of law officials.
The law office and the bench are not comfortable with such allegations from an official whose duty is to maintain law and order within the state, but, it is unclear whether they would fight back or leave the situation to solve itself.
This press is yet to contact the public relations officers of the law office and judiciary to gauge the extent of the reputational harm done to their institutions.
It is easy to make allegation against public institutions but sometimes difficult to prove it.
However, casting aspersion or blame to public institutions is seemingly an error on the part of the police and it is not the way to go.
It is time for the relevant government agencies to come together and fight together to eradicate the menace from Sierra Leone by blocking entry and exit points of Kush traffickers.
They must be found, stopped and prosecuted produce a deterrent effect for would-be traffickers.
Despite criticisms, Former Deputy Internal Affairs Minister, Lahai Lawrence Leema appeared to have hit the ground running in a report he produced identifying over 180 illegal crossing points in the country.
He came out with the report not too long after SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) took over state governance. It would have been better if government would have utilised this report in the benefit of Sierra Leoneans by fortifying such crossing points with police and military officers.
However, fear of accepting petty bribes from drug smugglers is also another challenge in the fight against the drug problem.
It is extremely difficult for less paid and poorly motivated police officers to reject a bribe to have ‘Kush’ into the country.
However, allegations emanating from the public hold that a police officers too are active participant in the drug trade and consumption.
Court records have shown the conviction of police officers as ‘Kush’ possessors and addicts while others have aided and abetted the commission of ‘Kush’-related crimes in the country. Videos of police officers in sleepy and dizzy moods after intake of ‘kush’ are going viral on several social media platforms, and it remains unclear whether disciplinary action has been instituted.
About a year ago, heads of senior police officers including the Inspector-General of Police rolled days after a container suspected of carrying drugs was exchange with one containing chickens.
Reliable government sources had intimated this press that the intelligence on the ‘Kush’ container reached State House from outside Sierra Leone, but lapses by the security apparatus led to a change of direction. The National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency, to date, remains the least funded agency making it difficult to contain the drug threat.
Sierra Leone, for too long, has been branded as a landing place and transit point for dangerous drugs affecting the youth with Cannabis being the most notorious. It was however not consumed on a scale of today.
It was in 2008 that an aircraft loaded with Cocaine landed at the Lungi International Airport with traffickers felling in the hands of the police.
They were speedily investigated, arraigned and convicted of the crimes.
One of the notable events in the investigation was the emergency enactment of the Anti-Drugs Act, 2008 to ensure lengthy jail terms for the traffickers. The new law, known for its toughness over drug traffickers, remains in wider application than the old and out-dated Drugs and Pharmacy Act, 1988.
Consequently, the police have been conducting raids in various communities where drugs particularly Cannabis is cultivated.
Hastings community in the outskirts of Freetown where farms of Cannabis were nursed and nourished saw countless police raids in their community as well as several arrest and prosecutions, but the problem still persists.
The campaign against harmful drugs intensified in early 2018 when a group of army and police officers entered Rosengbe village in Tonkolili district where Cannabis was cultivated, processed and sold to various parts of the country. Despite the operation’s good objective, it however did not go without criticisms owing to police heavy-handedness.
Then Local Unit Commander to Tonkolili Division was not informed of the operation and some innocent villagers badly injured and a casualty figure was recorded.
Household property and other valuables were made away including motor cycles believed to be proceeds of the sale of Cannabis.
The brutal raids carried out in several communities by police and military officers created hopes that the drug menace would be trampled in the dust of history, but the threat is still kept alive by traffickers.
Initially, it was hoped that the 2008 law would end drug trafficking in Sierra Leone, but the latest development has shown that much more has to be done.