By Omar Bah
The Inspector General of Police Landing Kinteh has said that the police force was ‘bastardized’ for over 22-years to the extent that all its personnel will need concealing as a force.
“Because if I can tell you for 22-years the only police station that I can imagine was built for the police is the Sibanor Police Station. It is amazing and if you say it somewhere, people think you are insane or not telling the truth and others question you why that is possible…But that is the reality,” he told GRTS Kerr Fatu.
IGP Kinteh said all the police stations built in the country were done by personal efforts and philanthropists.
“The same thing goes with our vehicles. We can boast of 150 vehicles that were never bought by the government previously and all these are coming from our peacekeeping funds and our welfare fund contributions by our officers. Even our busses were bought by ourselves,” he said.
Kinteh said: “But now we have the political will not only political but the current government has turned that will into action and since they took over, we have seen fleets of vehicles that are coming our way.”
On the Busumbala and Mankamang Kunda incidents, Kinteh reassured that investigations into both will be brought to a close and appropriate measures will be taken.
“Unless and until we exhaust all the investigations and some of the avenues, the ban on the permits will not be lifted. I believe this is in the interest of the peace and security of the nation to suspend all the political activities,” he said.
On why it took them long to handle both incidents, Kinteh added: “The main problem with the police and security in general many people especially the opposition see us as security of the government and I think all these mindsets need to be changed.”
The media, CSOs and inter party committee, he said, should send this message across “that we (Police) are here for the entire nation, because those days are gone where we would be instruments of the government.”
