By Sulaiman Jalloh
Hon. Alpha Timbo has asserted that the Sierra Leone Police is failing and that the future of young people is being destroyed. The opposition lawmaker was speaking in Parliament during an engagement summoned by the country’s legislature on Monday, 18th March, 2024, to know the status of the fight against drug, especially the Kush substance, in the country by concerned public institutions and how Parliament can support the fight.
Addressing the Inspector General of Police, Hon. Timbo said the police force should do the needful, saying that most of the ghettos or spots where harmful drugs are sold and consumed are in communities, alleging that the police do know the location of such ghettos or drug points.
“Mr. Inspector General of Police, if 200 has turned to about 2,900, I beg to say you are failing. The force is failing and the future of young people is being destroyed,” Hon. Timbo told police boss William Sellu, while accusing some police officers of being ‘jombis’ in ghettos.
Hon. Alpha Timbo emphasized that the Sierra Leone Police has failed in the fight, saying some police and military officers are partaking in drugs, pointing out that officers know where the drugs are being sold but are not acting because they partake in it. “If we do not point fingers where it is supposed to be pointed, even if we declared national health emergency we will not succeed in this fight,” the opposition lawmaker said.
He encouraged concerned authorities to be proactive and uncompromising in combating Kush and related harmful substances.
“… we have to exercise a bit of caution even with vehicles or other things we bring to this country,” he said while encouraging the management of the port to provide necessary security to protect people’s goods and services on the one hand and undertake robust inspection for drugs.
Hon. Timbo asked the chief medical officer at the Ministry of Health whether the marshmallow substance has been illegalized, saying that it is not only marshmallow that is used in Kush.
He said if the chain of supply of Kush is not broken, lots of young people will continue to lose their lives as he asked for Kush to be declared a national emergency.
Copy right –Printed in the Expo Times News on Wednesday, March 20th, 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)
