There are about 72 border entry points along the Sierra Leonean border with both Guinea and Liberia in the Kailahun district with only 8 border-entering points with full security personnel together with Customs, Immigration and Port Health Officers. This unfortunate situation has led to the country over the years losing huge sum of money through illegal entry and exit of goods and unwanted commodities using the unmanned/illegal entering points. It was also reported that the deadly ebola hemorrhagic diseases that caused the death of over four thousand innocent Sierra Leoneans came through some of those illegal border-crossing points along the Guinea/Liberia border with Sierra Leone.
[membership]
Also, the Independent Member of Parliament of Constituency 001, Kailahun district, Honourable Emilia Lolloh Tongi, has many times been calling on the attention of Parliament on issues surrounding illegal entry of armed men from Liberia who are creating unrest for his people and also the illegal entry of unwanted health substances. Upon a visit to some of the legal border entering points in Kailahun, it was noticed that security personnel were sheltered in wooden structures that are unprotected from winds, and some, were in tight mud structures with no sign of mobility available. Contrary to the other side of the borders specifically in Liberia and Guinea, where from a distance one can see well constructed buildings occupied by the security personnel, custom officers, Port Health officers with motor bikes and military/Police officers vehicles together with canoes. According to the Commander at Pengu Bendu border crossing point in Yenga village leading toward Nongowa in Guinea, Inspector John Jalloh, there is some calmness in security issues along the border with the supervision of their new Boss Assistant Superintendent of Police Turay. “As at now the greatest challenge facing us is mobility as the Koindu police do not have mobility for security personnel to effect government operations in that part of the country,” he said. According to him whenever there are issues of security concern, the Officer in Charge (OC) will have to hire a motorbike at a very high cost to get to the other entering point at Nafadu. He added that they sometimes intercept people trying to enter with contraband goods (cigarette, drugs). He said that they should have a navy patrol team just like their Guinean counterpart who on several occasion patrol along the riverside in a bid to ensure no one illegally enters their country, and ended up calling on stakeholders to lend a hand in building the security sector to ensure peaceful border communities. He disclosed that with the heavy rains they are exposed to cold as their shelters are exposed without any protection, explaining that they are more than willing to serve their country. According to most of the community people spoken to at the various border crossing points expressed dissatisfaction over the weak presence of security personnel within their communities as in most cases they will have to move along the riverside to make sure there are no intruders. It was discovered that SEND Sierra Leone constructed some of the wooden shelters for the security personnel in some of the border crossing points two or more years ago in their border security project.
By Alhaji Manika Kamara
Wednesday August 07, 2019.
[/membership]
[membership level=”0″]
Login or Subscribe to read the entire article
[/membership]