INTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE TOURS CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES,
COMMENDS BO CORRECTIONAL CENTER

The Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Internal Affairs in the Sierra Leone Parliament, Chaired by Hon. Alusine Kanneh, who also doubles as the Deputy Chief Whip in Parliament, has on three-day oversights visits on Tuesday 31 May Kambia District, Wednesday 1 June in Kenema, and Thursday 2 June in Bo 2022, toured correctional facilities both in Kenema and Bo Districts and commended the Bo Correctional Center (BCC) for providing good services for the inmates and assured them of their fullest support. According to the Chairman, their visit to the facilities was to get first-hand information about the activities and operations of agencies under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and also look at the human rights aspect and livelihood conditions of inmates across the country.

On Thursday June 2, 2022, in a meeting with the Management of BCC, the Chairman in his opening statement emphasized on their roles and said “as the peoples’ representatives, one of our key mandates is to perform oversight on Ministries Departments and Agencies and that Correctional Centers being under our committee supervision,” stating that they were there to probe into the operations and also look at the challenges faced by the institution and see how best they can help in addressing them. Moses Bob Sonny, Regional Commander, for the BCC expressed appreciation and thanked the Committee for the step of the oversight. He disclosed to the Committee that BCC is overcrowded and has over 219 inmates. According to him, the capacity of prison officers in the region is very small. But, he said with the help of the Chairman of the Committee in their last meeting, which advocated for them for additional prison officers to be recruited, the Government has approved to recruit 1,000 prison officers across the country. And currently, he said the recruitment process is ongoing. “In fact, as recently as two months ago, when we went to Parliament to present a report to the Committee, the Chairman was very proactive in advocating for us to get good numbers for the recruitment. Because originally, it was said 250 prison officers were to be recruited but he was very much supportive to us, and with the help of others we will be recruiting 1,000 prison
personnel this year” he explained.

Addressing inmates at the Bo Correctional Center facility, Hon. Alusine Kanneh said they were
there to do oversight in the Southern Region particularly in Bo. He said his impression gave him
hope of correctional services as far as inmates are concerned. He continued that they have seen
what the BCC is doing in terms of providing the necessary resources for them. He called on the
inmates to be law-abiding. “Our visitation here today is to ensure that those in charge here are really responding to your basic needs accordingly. And the way I am seeing you people I am sure you’ve been taken care off and this is what we are looking up to, to make sure that your rights are not abused. It is not
because you’ve been condemned or you’ve been imprisoned so therefore you are condemned, no, you have the right to leave a better life just on how I have it, the same as the prison boss” he stated.

In another development on Wednesday 1 June 2022, at the Police Regional Headquarters in
Kenema, the Chairman of the Committee said in terms of national development, the police has a
a lot to do, noting that the responsibility of the Committee was to do oversight visits on MDAs
under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He continued that the police have a lot to do with the
national stability of the country and if the police, he added, do otherwise then the stability of a
the nation falls short and when the police do the right thing then the stability of a nation stays in
progress.

He vehemently condemned the ways some police officers do arrest Members of Parliament
(MP). He recalled that most times when these arrests are done his colleagues would call on him
for his intervention and emphasized that the police should treat MPs with dignity and respect and
that in case the police want to arrest any MP, they should first call on the Speaker of Parliament
for approval. In his statement, the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Mustapha Solomon S. Kambeh in the Eastern Region assured the Committee of their fullest support. AIG Kambeh said he is faced
with numerous challenges, especially in the area of mobility for his police personnel to move
from districts to hard-reach areas of that part of the country.

He pointed out that as the 23 elections getting close, their focus is now on preparedness, adding that
he had held a consultative meeting with all his commanders in the six divisions of the Region to
have a status report on their assets, challenges and achievements they have passed in certain
areas and the document have been sent to Freetown. In Bo on Thursday 2 June 2022, the Regional Commander of the Southern Regional, Hillary Sao Kanu, gave general of the security situation in the Region, she said she took over as the Regional Commander, and the general security situation has been fluctuating with varying threats such as armed robbery related incidents within the City of Bo at different times which were professionally handled by arresting them including their ringleader. She continued that despite challenges faced in policing, few of our vehicles and motorbikes are not enough to address issues in the region. She disclosed that the entire crime department has no operational vehicle to quickly respond to felonious matters, adding incomplete murders as a result of delay in expect opinion such as late post-mortem reports and scientific or forensic analytical reports.

Also, in another development the Committee visited the National Registration Commission
Authority in Kenema Bo and Kenema District.

By Mohamed Amara Gando