By Hajaratu Kalokoh
Students of Limkokwing College have blasted the Sierra Leone Police over how they handled their protest on Tuesday. Students accused the Police of manhandling male and female students in the course of arresting them “unlawfully”.
On Tuesday students of the college converged at their Hill Station campus and marched in what seemed like a peaceful protest to the Ministry of Higher and Technical Education at New England Ville.
The students were protesting over the government’s failure to pay their fees, which has left them stuck at home since October last year.
A student who was arrested, Saio Alusine Marrah, said: “The arrest was unlawful as students were not involved in any form of violence. Even when we were arrested, we did not resist them (police). This indicates that the students are more professional than even the police.”
Police say 17 people were arrested at the scene of the protest; the students however say 18 people were arrested. All of them were released on Tuesday evening following the intervention of the college administration.
In the aftermath of the arrest, some of those who were part of the protest said they saw their colleagues manhandled by the Police.
“We were on the process of staging a peaceful march from the university to the ministry when police [fired] teargas canisters at us and arrested eighteen of us at St Mary’s Supermarket. They started beating some of our colleagues, slapped and pushed them into the vehicle and we were taken to the Lumley police station,” Marrah explained.
Another student, Isatu Sall Kamara, who was also arrested, said: “I and my colleague were beaten and scolded from our hiding place into the police truck. They ignored the fact that we are women. My friend is currently on medication. She is unable to walk at present. Because of the beating she sustained from the Police, her foot is swollen,” she said.
“This is a brutal act from the Police,” Kamara lamented.
The friend in question, Eliasu Jalloh, was contacted by Politico. She said “I fell down and they started beating me. I was unable to walk until when my friend helped to drag me up.”
Jalloh and Kamara both shared photos with Politico showing their swollen feet.
Another student who preferred anonymity explained how she was arrested for just visiting her friend at the Lumley Police station.
“I visited my friend at the police station, so I had to make a telephone call with regards to their arrest, when some officers approached me and alleged that I have taken photos of them to share it on social media. Even when I explained to them that it is not logical to make a call and take photo at the same time. One of them slapped me, took my phone and arrested me,” she explained.
Politico contacted the Police on the allegations. The Spokesman for the Sierra Leone Police, Brima Kamara denied that students were beaten or manhandled in anyway.
“They were 17 in number and all of them were released. Nobody was beaten or slapped. If they have a report to make against the Police, let them make it,” Kamara said.
One of the victims, Jalloh said they could not do anything about it, and that all they want is just to resume classes.
“They will always deny. Police brutality is normal. In any case we do not intend to act against them. All we want now is to resume classes and continue our courses,” she said.
This is not the first time Police have been criticized for their poor handling protests, especially protests by students. Students have accused the Police of using disproportionate force in dealing even with the most peaceful protest they have organized.
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