By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
A young lady, Sallamatu apparently in her 30’s, rushes to meet a would-be trafficker who cloaks himself in the attires of a humanitarian.
The young lady hails from the Northern town of Mambolo in Kambia district. She boarded a vehicle that alighted at Gberray Junction on transit to Freetown. The trafficker is waiting for her in Freetown to facilitate her movement to Cyprus where she had been denied entry on her first attempt.
By her account, Sallamatu is a clear case of human trafficking in the build up. She narrated to Nightwatch that sometime last year, the man in question whose name she does not mention, attempted to take to her to Cyprus in Europe where she assured her of getting a job.
Upon her arrival, she was immediately returned to Sierra Leone owing to lack of proper documentation that would guarantee her a moment stay in the country. She also said it is a month now since she came back to Sierra Leone. But, she is still desirous of getting back abroad, but this time, her destination is the United States. “To me, going to America is easier than going to some of these European countries. The last time, I made attempt to Cyprus, I was completely disappointed,” She said. “My next move now is to turn my attention to America where I can easily stay,” She said.
Sallamatu in a 30-minute discussion told Nightwatch how the man from America has really shown great help for her in terms of facilitating her movement. “The man in question has really spent money to let me go out of the country, but more money is needed to finance my trip,” She said.
Sallamatu alighted at Crossing village few Kilometers to Waterloo and dropped her personal effects to her aunt who praised the young girl for her smartness. “Salima, you are a smart girl,” the aunt shouted. Sallamatu received the praise with pride and she again boarded the vehicle and constantly engaged the presumed trafficking facilitator via mobile phone. Sallamatu was supposed to meet the trafficker at World Health Organisation for the ‘Yellow Card’ that testifies that she has been vaccinated. “The card is vey important for anyone who travels out of the country,” Sallamatu said.
She parted company with Nightwatch at Mamboreh Junction in the east and away she went to meet her ‘helper.’ Only God knows what befalls her in her presumed destination if the trip materializes.
Sallamatu’s movement was neither detected nor intercepted owing to a weak intelligence service in Sierra Leone Police (SLP). The intelligence network constitutes the Criminal Intelligence Service (CIS) and the Special Branch (SB). The two intelligence units have been merged to form the Integrated Intelligence Services (IIS). The CIS gathers information on general crime while SB concentrates on felonious state offences.
A retired police officer who narrated a brief historical background about said the intelligence service in the SLP was a potent force during the reign of Late inspector-General of Police, Bambay Kamara. He said the intelligence unit would provide cogent information through covert operation that went a long way to combat crime in society. “The intelligence service was very strong during Bambay’s reign and serious crimes were most times reported by the agency,” he narrated.
The retired officer explained that the intelligence unit remained strong through the tenures of several police chiefs. But the unit, he said, started losing its strength when former, IGP, Brima Acha Kamara took over the reins of command from the British expatriate, Keith Biddle. The former had a sour predisposition to the intelligence unit, the retired officer said, owing to a scathing report the intelligence unit published against him when he was the local unit commander for Kambia Division. “The report written against the then then IGP, Acha Kamara led to a sudden transfer of the whole division,” the retired officer narrated.
The emergence of Acha as the IGP, the officer continued, doomed the intelligence unit to failure owing to the bad blood generated through the report. Acha, according to the officer, was in charge of change management and was the man behind the community relations policing philosophy. He said Acha’s presentations at Academic, political and professional fora led to the formation and proliferation of local policing partnership boards nationwide.
The boards were meant to complement police effort in the fight against crime by providing accurate and timely information that would help in the detection, prevention and prosecution of crimes. However, the boards are no suitable replacements for the intelligence services in a society known for sophisticated crimes perpetrated by high profile suspects.
The LPPB’s meant to deter crime by the provision of useful information are slowly fading away. Some police divisions in remote communities do not enjoy LPPB presence talk less of cooperating with the police in the crime fight. Most times, the LPPB’s are not funded, and some of their membership commits crimes or are potential suspects.
Sierra Leone is still reeling of the effect of the snub slammed against her by the United States under the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC). The US snub costs Sierra Leone $600M of dollars in aid. The price the country pays is not unconnected to the crime of trafficking in persons that has flourished over the years. The 2019 Trafficking in Persons report indicts the government as still a transit hub for human trafficking as Sallamatu’s case portrays. The report says unprofessional police conduct fuels the crime of trafficking.
The crime of trafficking is central to many discussions now because of its negative impact on the country’s economy and Sierra Leone’s image abroad. Other crimes still spirals in several domains particularly in the economic domain. Money laundering is still rife, the manufacture and tendering of counterfeit money goes unabated, Sexual crimes still continues, robberies and murders especially ritual murders are common place. The occurrence of these crimes has a close linkage with the weak intelligence system in the country.
In spite of the evils inherent in the crime of trafficking, traffickers are still there and victims make repeated moves to go. This is a strong case for the SLP intelligence services.