By Africa24 news

A lot of Sierra Leoneans are giving out their misgivings about the ongoing screening of people for clandestine deadly weapons at newly created checpoints across the country.

Police military officers and soldiers have been doing some rigorous screening activities on passengers onboarding vehicles to and fro the capital, Freetown.

This comes immediately after a failed coup at a Wilberforce army’s arsenal and attempted attacks by some unknown gun men at Jui barracks on Sunday 26 Novemebr, 2023.

The government of Sierra Leone had to declare a night curfew on the following day which starts at 9:00 pm to 6:00 a.m every day since then.

The attacks at three of Sierra Leone’s army barracks left few soldiers killed while the whole country went on a coma.

On that same day, the country’s male correctional centre, the Pandemba road prison, was left opened causing many prisoners to escape.

These scary twin-events had led to government imposing curfew order in the country, and also the mounting of checkpoints across the nation thereby looking out for prisoners who had escaped during Sunday’s event. The move is also to restraining and by arresting those who might be suspicious of causing the attacks at the country’s military arsenals.

But most Sierra Leoneans are concerned about the way the regular searches on them have been carried out by police and soldiers at these various checkpoints.

“We are tired of this searching f police at checkpoints; we want it to stop. When you travel to upcountry you get embarrassed by security men especially if you don’t have a voter identity card to show,” says a passenger.

A man who had been searched, himself at a provincial checkpoint was heard saying that: “We got slowed down for minutes while travelling to Masiaka over the past two days because we had to come down the vehicle and be searched by security officers.”

But another male passenger was in support of police and military screening activities in the country as he pointed out safety reasons for civilians.

“I love the search that police and soldiers are doing; it is about protecting us. In fact, we should pray that it continues this way.”