Scores of Kenema residents on Friday 9th October 2020 staged a peaceful protest at the entrance of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces 2nd Infantry Battalion at RTI in Kenema. They held placards, some of which read: ‘we want justice’, ‘we need the correct result’, ‘the list is flooded with names from Makeni and Freetown’, ‘we will not accept the result’, ‘we want the right thing to be done’ among others.
The protesters included candidates who had applied to join the RSLAF by going through all the exams and protocols, but whose names did not surface in the result. They said the RSLAF called on candidates to visit the barracks to see their result, but to their surprise the majority of those whose names were on the list had their luggage with them at the barracks, and confessed coming from Freetown and Makeni.
The protesters are calling on the government and other stakeholders to immediately intervene to remedy the situation. They alleged that during the recruitment process they saw people from other regions among them competing for spaces allotted to the east.
Addressing the angry youths, the Brigade Commander, Brigadier General A.S. Bockarie called on them to exercise patience while he communicates with the RSLAF head office in Freetown to look into the issue. A parent who witnessed the scene, Mariama Lahai, said the results did not reflect the east, adding that the rumour they heard during the recruitment process “has become reality”.
She appealed to the government to “ensure that the right thing is done”.
By Saffa B. Moriba in Kenema