When a no-nonsense police boss is at the helm of affairs of security in the country the lives of people are made safe, and this sends a warning to criminal cartels that there is no hiding place for them. Under the leadership of IG Faiya Sellu, a lot of busting of criminal cartels have taken place, with many now in police hand.
This medium took time to monitor the activities of the SLP, with a view to see how things had changed under the new Inspector General of Police, and discovered that there has been outstanding performance of the force in maintaining security of the state, and notable among these developments is the nabbing of criminals across the country. This medium discovered that police at the border areas have on several occasions, arrested criminal gangs smuggling various food items and even drugs to and from neighboring Guinea and Liberia. Truckloads of marijuana, Kush and other contraband drugs were arrested at the border. On another occasion, another truckload of Free Quality Education materials was intercepted, that were being trafficked from Sierra Leone to Guinea for sale by unscrupulous criminals.
The above is just around border security, but there has been exceptional progress in internal security, as at Mile 38, the main entry point to Freetown, several smuggling rings have been arrested with drugs and other contraband substances, after the police had done thorough search of vehicles, on intelligence from other officers across the country. At Waterloo, recently, a notorious criminal, believed to be a leader of a killing squad was nabbed by the proactive action of the police, and he said to have been cooperating with the police over some disappearances of citizens.
Within the Western Area (both rural and urban) the Sierra Leone police has been very active in foiling criminal activities, with the arrest and discovery of arms, ammunition, as well as various dangerous tools used by criminals to cause mayhem in the country. Against this backdrop, the Sierra Leone police has mounted on a regular basis, checkpoint across certain areas in the city at night, and are rigorously checking vehicles, as well as inbound trucks from the provinces and the peninsular into the city. These road checks have also been fruitful, as criminal cartels smuggling drugs, especially marijuana and the notorious kush, into the city have been thwarted.
Under the leadership of IGP Sellu, the police seem to be on top of situation, as they have embarked on regular police patrols in the night, across the city and elsewhere, resulting in the arrest of criminals trying to break into people’s houses etc. To further strengthen the police-citizen ties, the SLP has developed partnerships with various communities and organizations, setting up police civilian partnership boards across the country, whose main function is to provide the force with necessary information about the activities of criminals in their respective communities, as well as a partnership with the umbrella organization of Journalists, with the view to enhance better working relationship with them, as well as sharing vital information to the police and the public about actions taken to maintain the security of the state.
All these could not have been achieved without the full cooperation and active involvement of IG Sellu. Under his watch, the SLP holds regular briefing with the press on their activities across the country, where each commander gives a report of what is going on in their respective areas of operations, and it is during such engagements that members of the public are informed of some of the progress made by the police in ensuring their security, and this has resulted in the increase of confidence between the populace and the police.
