Police yesterday displayed offensive weapons caught with school pupils during the recently ended Western Area inter secondary school competition.
Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of operations, Richard Moigbe, expressed disappointment in the manner in which school pupils conducted themselves during their school activities either soccer or athletics.
Mr Moigbe said, “pupils have to prepare for their sporting activities and should go there for recreational activities and not to antagonize each other”.
On Tuesday last week, during the inter secondary school meet at the National Stadium in Freetown, the police conducted their search and pupils were caught with offensive weapons.
An 11-year-old from Apex International School was arrested with a nine millimeter Chinese pistol together with a magazine of eight live rounds.
The other offensive weapons, according to Mr Moigbe, were daggers, knives, screw drivers, surgical instruments, scissors, blades, broken bottles, military fatigues, and some quantities of dried leaves suspected to be cannabis sativa.
He also mentioned that an SS1 female student of the Government Rokel Secondary School was arrested with a tube containing a gaseous substance which she was using to gas her colleagues by pumping it on their faces.
A good number of students, he continued, were also arrested in possession of various dangerous weapons.
The Assistant Inspector General of Police remarked that when such incidences and riots occurred and gun shots fired, the police were blamed for firing shots. He cautioned parents to check their children even at school and to monitor them when they went out on social activities.
Ten children were arraigned yesterday in court in relation to the possession of offensive weapons.
By Ishmael Bayoh