The security situation in the East is at stake as most people in the regional headquarter town of Kenema have described the Bo – Kenema highway as unsafe especially at night. Series of ambushes have been taking place on the highway that has resulted in death and destruction of property.
The latest ambush took place on Tuesday 26th August 2008 when a sky blue Nissan Premier car with registration no. ACY 948 was on its way from Bo to Kenema when it was attacked by men dressed with masked faces who damaged the vehicles windscreen.
Speaking to the driver Foday Kargbo of 2 Tenneh Street in Kenema at a garage along Blama road just after 31 Blama road he explained that he met about eight men all dressed in black attires between Lungayma and Gelehun with their faces disguised, four of them on each side of the road.
He said one of the men came to the road and stopped him but he then increased his speed as he spotted them, and as he sped past, he heard a big noise at the back of his car which he said was due to his wind screen being smashed.
When he arrived at Bandama checkpoint on the outskirts of Kenema city he reported the matter to the police. He was having six passengers in his car and no one was injured.
The other drivers like Sulaiman Turay and Manyeh who were at the same garage told me that just after Jembeh, in places like Bamba junction, Gelehun junction, Lungayma and up to Blama in the Small Bo chiefdom area were all the danger zones along the Highway.
Turay said the reason why they drive at night is that most of the business people who come to Bo in the South from Guinea, Freetown and other places usually like to come to Kenema at any time of the night and we the drivers are always at the motor parks in Bo waiting for them.
But the situation is becoming unbearable with such an ugly development.
It was on this same road where a motor bike rider from Bo in the South Mohamed Konneh was brutally slaughtered by unknown men who burnt down his motor bike.
Up to the time of writing of this piece the perpetrators have not been arrested and the police are still investigating the matter. Trucks, light vehicle, cars and motorbikes have all narrowly escaped the ambushed on the Bo-Kenema highway.
By Saffa Moriba in Kenema