Publisher's Note: The article in the ensuing, which was first published in various newspapers and online media outlets in September 2010, earned me (Abdul Fonti) the 2010 National Award for Best Newspaper Columnist in Sierra Leone.
This is a breaking news from the desk of the Roaming Pen. ‘Scorpions’ have invaded the Freetown city. These ‘scorpions’ are indiscriminately attacking and harassing people, especially those who refuse to produce their local tax receipts for inspection. The new breed of human scorpions is all over the city and they can be easily identified by their uniforms.
This 21st century scorpions are dressed in gold shirt and navy blue trousers. They were recruited by the Freetown City Council (FCC) as a result of the reluctance of the citizens to honour their obligations of paying their local tax dues. Those who fail to produce their local tax receipts for inspection are being attacked and showered with several bites.
Beware of scorpions in Metropolitan Police clothing and don’t wait until they victimize you. Take to your heels whenever you come across them, especially if you are yet to pay for your local tax. Take this advice seriously as it is definitely no joke.
Don’t ask me whether or not biting people for local tax receipts have become a part and parcel of the bye-laws of the Freetown City Council, because I will refer you to the Mayor for answers. But what I will tell you for sure is that people have already started suffering from this new cruel way of collecting taxes – produce your tax receipt or risk being bitten.
As recent as last week, I read in the Awareness Times Newspaper that metropolitan police officers descended on a businessman and gave the latter a couple of bites, reminisce the actions of scorpions. The ‘crime’ of the businessman was his failure to produce his tax receipt on the spot for inspection. As was reported by the Awareness Times Newspaper, the metropolitan ‘scorpions’ insisted that the businessman should buy a new tax receipt irrespective of the man’s explanation and plea that he had earlier obtained one which was not in his possession that moment.
An argument later ensued when the businessman reportedly pleaded with them to be patient, so that he can make a telephone call to his residence, which was just a stone throw from his business place, in order for somebody to come with his tax receipt. The aftermath of the disagreement was bite injuries and evidences of slaps and kicks plastered all over the businessman’s body.
This is just an example of one of the numerous citizens who have been victimized by these ‘metro-scorpions’. Biting people for local tax receipts, which seems to be the latest strategy of collecting local taxes, has left people wondering whether these metropolitan police officers are real human law enforcers or scorpions in police camouflage?
One cannot be far from the truth to speculate that the instructions to beat and bite people for tax receipts are coming from the hierarchy of the Freetown City Council (FCC). These ‘scorpions’ in police smokescreen always boast that they will never be brought to book for their reckless acts (buff case), and true to this, all of the perpetrators are allowed to go scot-free.
Apart from biting people, it is also an open secret that metropolitan police officers are engaged in all sorts of reckless and lawless behaviors, which include raining abuses (mammy curses) on peaceful citizens, beating people to coma on frequent intervals, and rudely approaching people to produce tax receipts when the fact remains that most of them are without tax receipts.
As recent as last month, a female school teacher of the Saint Michael Primary School was mercilessly manhandled by these metropolitan officers for no just cause. The lady was later frog-matched and dumped into a waiting truck like a common criminal and whisked to the Freetown City Council Works Yard at Blackhall Road. Notwithstanding the fact that she was bitterly weeping and complaining of body pains, she was inhumanly forced to sit on the ground whilst a statement was being recorded from her.
She was later dragged again into the FCC truck and whisked to the FCC’s Wallace Johnson Street Headquarters for further torture. With the help of vigilant journalists, the head of the metropolitan police, later tendered unreserved apologies to the female teachers and promised to punish the perpetrators. That was the end of it.
Few days later, a boss driver who was traveling from Kabala to Freetown was attacked at a place called Ojuku Junction, and was mercilessly manhandled by metropolitan police officers until he went into a state of coma. Also, nothing was done to the perpetrators. These ‘metropolitan-scorpions’, whom some people now call ‘city thugs’, are having field days harassing, abusing, beating and biting people with total disregard for law and order.
They are gradually becoming ‘city murderers’ and the need to put a halt to this trend cannot be overstressed. They started as city police, gradually became city thugs, degenerated to city scorpions and they are soon to become city murderers.
Beware! Scorpions are all over the city with a mandate to bite anyone without a local tax receipt.
No comments:
Post a Comment