{"id":742,"date":"2009-10-10T11:27:29","date_gmt":"2009-10-10T15:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=742"},"modified":"2009-10-10T11:27:29","modified_gmt":"2009-10-10T15:27:29","slug":"over-killing-of-constable-police-boss-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=742","title":{"rendered":"Over Killing Of Constable – Police Boss Lies!"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Says Armed Robbery is Exaggerated”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Head of Professional Unit of the Sierra Leone Police SIS Koroma yesterday referred to the flurry of media reports of armed robbery in the country as an exaggeration and an amplification of the reality as “there are not as much armed robbery incidences as the Sierra Leone press claims,” he said.<\/p>\n

This claim took place in the wake of the shooting of Constable 8333 Abu Musa by armed robbers in the early hours of\u00c2\u00a0 Tuesday yesterday on Leicester Road in Freetown while they were on foot patrol. The constable later died in the hospital as a result of his wounds sustained from the shooting.<\/p>\n

According to a police personnel present during the event, they encountered a group of armed robbers while on patrol and when they tried to intercept them, they were met with gun fire.<\/p>\n

“All of us dodged for cover when the criminal gang opened fire on us, and that was the time Abu was shot.” the police who asked not to be named said.<\/p>\n

Investigations carried out by Sierra Media Express reveal the police officers who were on patrol were not provided with any weapon and that they only had handcuffs and batons while on patrol.<\/p>\n

Although incidents of armed robbery in the entire country, and more especially in the city are now a matter of concern, senior police downplayed the incident, and instead attacked the press for reporting on the incident.<\/p>\n

Answering questions from Sierra Express Media yesterday during the weekly police press briefing, senior law enforcement officers denied that\u00c2\u00a0 over ten armed\u00c2\u00a0 robberies had occurred in the past as reported in the media and that all of the incidents took place.<\/p>\n

Even if\u00c2\u00a0 such armed robbery incidents ever happened, we do not have knowledge of it and would be grateful if you can help us with the information SIS Koroma said.<\/p>\n

Sierra Express is perplexed about the lack of knowledge and concern shown so far on the matter of armed robbery that has become the order of the day, and which is making life for the peaceful citizen very uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Within a one month period, Sierra Express Media<\/em> has reported incidences of more than ten armed robberies mostly in the city. Early last month in Kissy and Wellington, three various armed robberies occurred, armed robbers also attacked the Low Cost Housing Estate two times and during one of these attacks, one of the robbers was gunned down and the other apprehended by vigilantes in the area and taken to the Kissy Mess-Mess Police Station.<\/p>\n

Two weeks later, Sierra Express Media<\/em> again reported about an armed robbery incident in Eastern Freetown in Wellington which left members of the Brima Lane Community forming a vigilante group for self defense. Community members accused the police of collaborating with the robbers and for not providing adequate security.<\/p>\n

Three successive armed robberies in a row at Goderich Village were also reported by Sierra Express Media<\/em> also resulting in the formation of a neighbourhood security vigilante group to ward off what was described as the persistent attack of gunmen in their community.<\/p>\n

“The Lungi incident resulting in the death of \u00c2\u00a0two young men shot by police bullet when they rose to protest the growing spate of armed robbery is yet to be investigated and the police are quick to deny knowledge of the proliferation of armed men attacking innocent civilians at such a rapid rate,” said a radio listener who heard the denials of robbery being made by the police. “This is a big big lie,” he stated angrily.<\/p>\n

Just two weeks ago when the incident occurred, the police were reportedly accused of conniving with the robbers. This followed a succession of armed attacks on the lives and property of the people of Masoila in Lungi. Another case of armed robbery occurred a few days ago in Lunsar when a fuel dealer was attacked by gunmen and all his sales for the day, totaling over twenty million Leones was carted away.<\/p>\n

Also, as early as 9:30 p.m. on a busy traffic by Dillet Street, armed robbers rushed into a popular Indian shop in Freetown (PREM) and carted away millions of Leones, a day after that, another Indian shop in the busy commercial district came under a similar attack along Sani Abacha Street that left shop owners now in constant fear for their life and security.<\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Says Armed Robbery is Exaggerated” Head of Professional Unit of the Sierra Leone Police SIS Koroma yesterday referred to the flurry of media reports of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[699,673,1],"tags":[836,744,1035],"class_list":["post-742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-national-news","category-uncategorized","tag-armed-robbery","tag-sierra-leone","tag-sis-koroma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}