The report also notes that two notorious Police officers- Mohamed Turay alias Yete Yete and Idrissa Kamara alias Leather Boot be relieved of their jobs to serve as a deterrent to others in future. Below are some key recommendations.
IMMEDIATE ACTION RECOMMENDED:
1. The electoral laws be reviewed and more powers vested
in the Political Parties Registration Commission to
penalize parties and individuals involved in political
violence and other related political crimes. The
Political Parties Registration Act should therefore be
amended as a matter of urgency.
2. We recommend that steps be taken for those
responsible for the acts of violence in Freetown and
Gendema to be relieved of their responsibilities and
barred from holding any public office for a period of at
least 5 (five) years. The Mayor of Freetown, Herbert
George Williams, and the Resident Minister South Musa
Tarawallie are being specifically mentioned.
3. Government that, as a matter of urgency, mandate the
Law Reform Commission to formulate a Political Violence
Act as it did in the case of the Domestic Violence Act.
Such legislation should provide for very stringent
penalties including a ban on participating directly or
indirectly in political activities and holding of public
offices.
4. Members of the security forces, who have betrayed the
trust put on them to protect the citizens, and found to
be unprofessional in their activities, or support
violence, should be dismissed from their employment to
serve as a deterrent to others in future. In this regard
we specifically indicate Mohamed Turay (Yete Yete),
Idrissa Kamara (Leather Boot).
5. The Police that remains uncommitted to any political
party ideology and act only in consonance with the
Political Parties Registration Commission and the
National Electoral Commission for deployment in areas
where campaigns are organized at all times when
elections are pending.
6. We recommend that swift steps be taken to amend the
Political Parties Registration Commission Act to provide
for a requirement that every political party organize
seminars and workshops on Political Tolerance in every
constituency at least once each year, failing which a
party should not be allowed to field candidates in any
constituency where such requirement has not been
fulfilled.
7. We recommend a restructuring of the Police Force as
it appears there is a lack of co-ordination between the
very senior officers. In this case the A.I.G. Operations
at the time said he was not notified of the events of
the 13th March 2009, until 16th March 2009.
There is dire need for the re-introduction of ranks as Commissioner of Police, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Senior Assistant Commissioner etc. which was one of those phased out by an Inspector-General of Police, Keith Biddle, making this country the only one in Africa without a Commissioner in the Police Force.
A single handed restructure, we think was undesirable and so not reflective of our social structure. This is a root for the lapses in the performance of the security forces (the Police) during such crisis. In furtherance of this, we recommend that there be no further promotion from Chief Superintendent to Assistant Inspector-General until after such restructuring of the force.
The structure of the Police should be founded on the
principle of hierarchical subordination, discipline and
social obligation, and not on parallel lines and
partisan basis.
