By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
The Deputy Director of Strategic Communications and Spokesperson at the Office of National Security (ONS), Abdul Karim Will says the country is on Security Level 2 ,after the deadly August 10 protests that occurred in some parts of the country.
He made this pronouncement during the government's weekly press briefing at the Ministry of Information and Communications on 18th August 2022.
Will stated that there are three levels of security provisions; ranging from levels 1-3. He said level one (1) deals with the prevalence of normalcy in the country, level two (2) deals with the growth of potential threats that has the tendency to derail the peace of the country, and level three (3) deals with the total breakdown of law and order in the country.
“What we have currently is a growing potential of threat in the country, which is why the security level has been escalated to level 2,” he said.
He added that the National Security Council has also reactivated the National Joint Operation Sector and the incident command centres. He said the August 10 incident did not happen due to a lack of information, noting that people had made up their minds to go out into the streets.
The ONS spokesperson stated that they have met across the board to ensure that they prevent what occurred that day. He said they have issued press releases, attended radio and television discussions, and sent social media messages urging people to respect the laws of the land, but said all those messages fell on deaf ears.
He went on to say that, after the 10th August incident ONS has put in place measures to help curtail such occurrences including instituting the Military Aid to Civil Power (MAC-P) to prevent what happened that day. The Deputy Director of Strategic Communications emphasized that MAC-P will be a standing operation until the security status in the country is considered stable by the Authorities.
For now Will said: “the Military will now be supporting the police in enforcing the security of the country,” he said.
He further said that they have activated the National Situation Room which he said is a conduit for receipt of analysis and dissemination of critical national security information for effective utilization and to also respond to security matters. He said they have established 119 Toll-free line on all mobile networks in the country to encourage the public to participate in the process of security. He encouraged the public to make use of this opportunity and report any incident of insecurity that might threaten their communities.
The Office of National Security is mandated to coordinate the national security and intelligence architecture with the aim of creating the enabling environment for sustainable national development, poverty reduction, and conflict prevention.
Copyright (c) Politico Online (19/08/22)
