By Alpha Abu
A senior civil society figure in the Southern region, Mustapha Kpaka has on behalf of activists in that part of the country condemned the riotous behaviour of some students attending the Ahmaddiyya Muslim Secondary School in Bo city which resulted in the arrest of twenty-one young people, many believed to be pupils of the school.
People residing in the neighbourhood close to Ahmaddiyya and school authorities, have for some time expressed serious concerns at the level of anti- social activities youths indulge in at a specific area that was very close to the school. Kpaka said war, Ebola and now COVID-19 have affected Sierra Leone’s development greatly, and they as civil society members would hate to see any acts of lawlessness that could undermine the peace and stability of the country in general.
According to the Police media officer South Inspector Mohamed Bobson Senu , the young people mostly boys would often converge in that particular spot to gamble, take drugs or perpetrate other vices much to the chagrin of concerned elderly members in the community. There were growing concerns that the acts taking place there would filter into the school population with the tendency of disrupting the learning atmosphere and tranquillity of the neighbourhood as a whole.
The Police in the morning of Tuesday 23 March 2021 were said to have received a call from an unknown person who reported that rowdy and chaotic scenes were taking place in the notorious vicinity. Inspector Senu said they dispatched a team of officers to investigate the veracity of the caller’s claim. He said as their vehicle approached the location, they were surprised to see barricades mounted by pupils of Ahmadiyya School, who then resorted to pelting them with stones and other projectiles. The front windshield of the vehicle was smashed with a few officers sustaining injuries. The Inspector confirmed the arrests of the twenty-one persons and could not rule out the prospect of them being charged to court.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (24/03/21)
