Abubakarr Dexter Bangura a law student at the University of Sierra Leone Fourah Bay College has made an official complaint to the Sierra Leone Police against the mayor of Freetown George Herbert Williams for an alleged assault.
According to a Police medical report which is in possession of this Press from the Central Police station in Freetown indicates that the complainant had sustained general body pain and bruising on the left wrist.
The complainant accused the mayor of molestation and battering on Tuesday 13th September 2009 when he ordered a band of hoodlums masquerading as Metropolitan Officers to heavily descend on a peaceful citizen who had just come out of a Boutique at Howe Street.
Narrating his ordeal to AWOKO reporter the perplexed victim expressed dismay at the preponderance of violence directed at him whilst he stood to see the Mayor and his entourage moving down the footway. According to him, the Mayor was on his way to his Office when all of a sudden he dramatically stopped in front of the Boutique where the victim had just left.
He said “the Mayor turned aside and advised the bystanders that the drainage must always be kept tidy”. As the victim was about to distance himself from such responsibility, one of his officers forcefully pushed him towards the drainage to have it cleaned immediately.
In the bid to free himself from the struggle he said “Metropolitan Police officers violently hit him on the chest in the presence of His Lordship, Herbert Williams, and his entourage whilst the others grabbed and dragged him away. He was then forcefully handcuffed by another Metropolitan Officer in the full view of the Mayor himself and this warranted stout condemnation by the onlookers.
According to the victim “This is a blatant disregard of my integrity and personal safety. I am embarrassed, humiliated and psychologically tortured”. He questioned how the Mayor could wickedly allow his officers to recklessly and irresponsibly perpetrate violence against his person in his full view. “Though I protested, they refused to pay heed to it. What an arrant recklessness!” he fumed.
At the scene most bystanders unequivocally and roundly denounced this violent behaviour against someone they described as moderate, intelligent and soft-spoken.
However, according to one bystander, “Such recklessness does not befit the office of the Mayoralty.
It could be recalled that this is not the first time the Mayor has been associated with violence. A peaceful citizen residing at Fourah Bay Road was early this year molested and beaten up coupled with the violence that marred the Clock Tower Commissioning which ended up in a riot between the SLPP and the APC.
Speaking at his hospital bed side Abubakarr expressed determination to seek redress at the courts so as to stop the culture of impunity by authorities in power. However desperate efforts were made by AWOKO to contact the mayor for his comment which proved futile, but our investigations into the matter continues.