AIG MEMUNA ON THE NEWTON INCIDENT AND ALLEGATION SHE SLAPPED A SOLDIER By: Umaru Fofana Asst. Inspector General of Police, Memuna Conteh has vehemently denied allegations by an army spokesman that she slapped a soldier. An army spokesman, Cpt Yahya Brima had issued a statement that Memuna “publicly slapped Warrant Officer (Class Two) Alimamy Dura at the Newton Checkpoint and also ordered her body guard to beat up the military personnel”. The AIG told me that all she did was to refuse permission to the soldier to cross the checkpoint when he was not authoritised to move out and about, in violation of emergency measures announced by the president that no one should be allowed to travel between districts unless they were authorised as being involved with the Ebola fight or were essential travellers. The soldier was in a clearly marked taxi with passengers having alighted from the car on the other side of the checkpoint to walk across and rejoin it, Memuna said. She went on that the soldier claimed the car was his but failed to produce proof of ownership saying he left the vehicle life card at home in Waterloo. “I offered him a car or a motorbike to expedite bringing the documents” she said, to which the soldier allegedly refused and felt offended saying: “nor kam borbor me na ya oh, me sef na autoriti”. Memuna said that when the argument became heated without headway she instructed the taxi driver to head back to the opposite direction with the soldier allegedly creating a scene, insisting he be allowed to go through. He said the solder brought out a well laminated Ebola vehicle pass but without a vehicle registration number on it. When the taxi driver was challenged, Memuna said, he owned up that the soldier had given it to him for which reason she seized it saying the driver at this point got scared and made a U-turn. Memuna said the soldier insulted and demeaned her at which point she asked one of her police officers to start recording the altercations which she said angered the soldier who allegedly hit the hand of the policewoman as she was recording. The AIG said she held the hand of the soldier to restrain him from further hitting her junior colleague. “No one hit him” she assured. Memuna said the whole incident started when on Saturday her senior colleague, Al-Shek had called her to complain that the situation at the Newton checkpoint – the last roadblock into and out of Freetown under her jurisdiction – was chaotic. She went there at night and noticed that everybody – even those coming to visit their relatives in Freetown – had a pass authoritising them into or out of town as if they were essential travellers. She said she therefore instructed the police commander there to close the checkpoint. She said that she had also stopped another soldier from entering Freetown with a vehicle carrying a foreign registration plate even though the army captain carrying it had pleaded to be allowed to pass. She said she saw bags full of passes which were suspect, and vowed to curb the situation at the roadblock which she said she is doing.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 22:39:23 +0000
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