Miss-Delectable
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Deaf & Dumb cry foul in Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone News
An eight-man delegation of deaf and dumb persons, led by Chairman of the Deaf Welfare Organization (DWO), Alhaji Lahai Vangahun, last week-end, stormed the Awareness Times offices in tears, complaining of an alleged act of injustice by police personnel at the Adelaide Street and Central Police Stations respectively, for refusing to grant bail to nine of their numbers who were recently arrested.
Speaking through an interpreter, Chairman Vangahun explained how their colleagues were arrested on Monday 6th November 2006 by police personnel attached to the Operation Free Flow Unit along Garrison Street where, he stated, they are known for fending for their daily bread. He stated that none of their colleagues were arrested on the prohibited areas and they not obstructing traffic either.
The Chairman for the Deaf expressed surprise at what was interpreted as "the insensitivity of the police to their state of being" when their request for bail to be granted to their colleagues was turned down. According to him, even the intervention of the President of the Sierra Leone National Association for the Deaf and Dumb, Mrs. Ramatu Sesay could not sway the police and had gone ahead to charge them to court.
Chairman Vangahun, said they are aware of the prohibitions against street trading which he maintained they (deaf and dumb) have always been abiding with. He however stated that government should endeavour to provide adequate market facilities in the city that would accommodate traders so as to avaiod what he referred to "daily running-battle between traders and the police along the streets of city".
The nine arrested deafs include; Dauda F. Sankoh, Fatamata Jabbie, Brima Koroma, Fatmata Joseph Kamara, Abdulai Mansaray, Jalikatu Jalloh, Annie Kargbo, Rugiatu Sankoh and Fatu Sankoh.
However, the police denied any form of injustice and have stated that their action was according to law.
An eight-man delegation of deaf and dumb persons, led by Chairman of the Deaf Welfare Organization (DWO), Alhaji Lahai Vangahun, last week-end, stormed the Awareness Times offices in tears, complaining of an alleged act of injustice by police personnel at the Adelaide Street and Central Police Stations respectively, for refusing to grant bail to nine of their numbers who were recently arrested.
Speaking through an interpreter, Chairman Vangahun explained how their colleagues were arrested on Monday 6th November 2006 by police personnel attached to the Operation Free Flow Unit along Garrison Street where, he stated, they are known for fending for their daily bread. He stated that none of their colleagues were arrested on the prohibited areas and they not obstructing traffic either.
The Chairman for the Deaf expressed surprise at what was interpreted as "the insensitivity of the police to their state of being" when their request for bail to be granted to their colleagues was turned down. According to him, even the intervention of the President of the Sierra Leone National Association for the Deaf and Dumb, Mrs. Ramatu Sesay could not sway the police and had gone ahead to charge them to court.
Chairman Vangahun, said they are aware of the prohibitions against street trading which he maintained they (deaf and dumb) have always been abiding with. He however stated that government should endeavour to provide adequate market facilities in the city that would accommodate traders so as to avaiod what he referred to "daily running-battle between traders and the police along the streets of city".
The nine arrested deafs include; Dauda F. Sankoh, Fatamata Jabbie, Brima Koroma, Fatmata Joseph Kamara, Abdulai Mansaray, Jalikatu Jalloh, Annie Kargbo, Rugiatu Sankoh and Fatu Sankoh.
However, the police denied any form of injustice and have stated that their action was according to law.