The Local Unit Commander (LUC) of Panlap Police Division on the outskirts of Makeni city, Allieu Musa, has been accused of physically manhandling a married couple, Sarah Bangura and wife Kadiatu Kamara, after the couple had reported an assault case at the police division.
Reports are that Kadiatu Kamara was assaulted by some boys at Saoliya Village in Gbanty Chiefdom, Bombali District, who borrowed some agricultural implements from her but stubbornly refused to return them to her.
When the poor woman went to Saoliya Village to collect the agricultural implements from the boys, they reportedly molested her and beat her up.
Kadiatu reported the matter at the Panlap Police Division but the police dragged their feet over it for over one month and when the matter finally came up, the married couple went to the police station and told the security personnel that due to the unnecessary delay in handling the matter, they were no longer interested in it because the boys had already apologized to them.
When Kadiatu requested to withdraw the matter from the police station, the security personnel started raining invectives on the married couple for allegedly wasting their precious time.
Even when the married couple explained to the police that the village elders had prevailed on them to withdraw the matter from the police station, the police refused to listen; instead, they insisted that the matter has been charged to court for hearing.
It was during the argument between the married couple and the police that the LUC, Allieu Musa, came out of his office and called the driver of a waiting vehicle to take the married couple to court.
When the husband said they were no longer interested in the matter because the village elders have prevailed on them to resolve the matter amicably, the LUC, according to eye-witness accounts, physically manhandled the husband and ordered his orderlies to apprehend and bundle him into the waiting vehicle.
Whilst the LUC was manhandling the husband, his six-month pregnant wife was also brutalized by the junior officers that beat her up and also dragged her into the waiting van.
Sarah, according to our sources, was frog-marched to the Panlap Police cells and locked up for four days and was only released on bail after he fell sick. He is at present admitted at the Makeni Government Hospital.
When The Satellite contacted LUC Allieu Musa, he declined to respond to the damning allegations leveled against him and his junior officers; instead, he referred this press to the Makeni Police Media Officer, one Chief Inspector Sankoh, who dodged this press for three consecutive days. He was reluctant to talk to this press and gave flimsy excuses.
It could be recalled that this the second time the Panlap Police Division has maltreated and locked up complainants. Some couples of months ago, man was beaten up and later locked up in the police cells where he fell sick. He died some days later. When BBC and other media houses reported the matter, only two junior police officers were dismissed whilst LUC Allieu Musa was untouchable.
