The Management and staff of Global Times Newspaper at Percival Street in Freetown, yesterday made an official complaint to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) over an alleged robbery of their office over the weekend.
According to the editor of Global Times, Sheik Bawoh who also doubles as the Vice President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) the criminals carted away valuable items including laptops costing millions of Leones and documents.
According to the editor, the pattern that the criminals adopted “lives one to wonder that the perpetrators had a special mission that has to do with my newspaper office”. “They stole with a deliberate intent in apparent thinking that they will find something subversive in our office,” Mr. Bayoh said.
The Global Times office is one of the well furnished newspaper offices in the country in terms of computers, printers and other electronic devices and furniture. But according to the editor, the thieves carted away only three laptops and one digital camera.
“The robbery creates an unfettered suspicion of a politically motivated ploy to silence the newspaper,” Mr. Bayoh charged, noting that had the robbery been an act of real thieves they would have carted away virtually everything in the office which also had two LCD plasma TV screens fitted to the wall.
However the Publisher of Global Times, Sorie Fofana expressed disgust over the high level of criminal activities in the country and assured the public of the newspaper’s continued publication. Staff of Global Times and sympathizers expressed shock over the thievery.
The Criminal Investigations Department is investigating the matter.
By Saidu Bah
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