By Ishmael Dumbuya
As a way of combating the Kush menace across the country, the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) has braced up to crackdown on individuals involved in the traded.
Director of Operations, Sierra Leone Police, ACP Dr. John Martin Senesie, during a press conference organised last week at the SLP’s Headquarters on George Street in Freetown, informed the public that as an institution mandated by law to protect lives and property, it’s their utmost onus to fight against the Kush epidemic.
He underscored that they cannot do it alone as the fight requires a multi-sectoral approach.
ACP Senesie urged communities to help the police in the fight, adding that everyone is affected by the scourge as many have lost either friends or family members to the drug.
He emphasised that they have had intelligence that the raw materials of the drug are being shipped into Freetown from overseas before being mixed in makeshift laboratories across the country, but noted that most of the sources of the supply still remain unknown.
He concluded that the police have launched a nationwide crackdown on dealers and users of the drug, adding that they have no sacred cow and that an officer caught with Kush or in a place where it is being sold, order than official police assignment, will face the full force of the law like any other offender.
Responding to questions of police officers involvement in Kush intake, Head of Discipline and Internal Investigation Department (CDIID), Franklyn Bawoh, disclosed that over the past weeks, three police officers were arrested with a large quantity of Kush, and that they were brought to the CDIID where they were interrogated individually.
He further stated that the three officers were charged to court and that after the court hearings, they were found guilty of the charges levied against them and have been dismissed, accordingly.
Shedding light on a video circulating on the media which showed a police officer smoking Kush and was eventually arrested by the community people and his hair shaved, the CDIID head mentioned that the said police was among the three dismissed officers.
Local Unit Commander, Central Division, ACP Abdul Moijoy, updated the public that his division has made a significant progress in the fight. He indicated that a lot of arrests have been made in his division, and that they were helping the police with investigation.
SLP Media Officer, Northwest Region, Paul Hassan Turay, updated the conference on the strides made against Kush via Zoom. He noted that a lot of arrests have been made in Kambia, Lunsar and other places in the region, with a large amount of Kush in medical plastics.
AIG Brima Kanneh, Regional Commander, South also shed lights on his region’s fight against Kush, and indicated that several arrests have been made.
