As of press time, we were unable to receive the report of our journalist sent to cover the incident at Wellington which left two youths dead in the early morning hours of yesterday Tuesday June 5th 2012.

However, from the report as aired over the national SLBC broadcaster, it is clear that an issue of mistaken identity has left two of our youthful compatriots dead.

Our armed wing OSD Police Officers should be commended for the efforts to curtail violence and crime in the capital city and also the entire country but to be very honest, they do seem to be limited in effecting certain duties such as robust policing of Eastern Freetown neighbourhoods which have lately become prone to aggravated & armed robbery attacks.

As a result of an increasing menace of machete and gun-toting armed robbers terrorising their homes, youths are forced to create vigilante groups in their unsecured neighbourhoods.

Tuesday’s events saw armed policemen suspecting the youths to be part of machete wielding robbers terrorising the east of Freetown lately. Earlier, the youths intercepted a vehicle they suspected to have been involved in armed robbery. The driver suspecting the youths to be armed robbers, fled the scene and called for police reinforcement.

In the ensuing process of mistaken identities, at least one vehicle got burnt down, homes got stoned and two of our brothers are lying stone dead right now. The spectacular angry outburst of the area youths to the deaths, indicates that there is a serious resentment problem brewing in Eastern Freetown and the sooner the authorities look into it the better.

We wish to end by reiterating our appreciation of the services of our armed Police officers but at the same time, we urge for an enquiry into this incident. Two youths are dead. Why? How?