Boom Time for Thieves
In Sierra Leone, the Christmas season has always witnessed a dramatic increase in the rate of robbery. Rampaging robbers step up their criminal activities Christmas merry.
Pick pocketing, snatching of mobile phones and various other forms of thieving reach an alarming rate whenever the Christmas season comes.
Clever thieves capitalize on the mass influx of JCs (people just coming from the Diaspora) during the Xmas season. The JCs, most of whom are not au-fait with the numerous tactics of the robbers, easily become victims. It is usual to hear a JC crying that his or her expensive mobile phone has been snatched or his or her car tape stolen.
The heightened spate of robbery is more prevalent in the capital city, Freetown although other provincial towns like Bo, Kenema and Makeni are not spared.
Visitors from the provinces who come to the city to spend Xmas are often targeted by the thieves who are smart enough to detect someone from the provinces either by his or her dress code or manner of walking.
But the question that keeps tormenting my thought is why most of our youths and even some of our elders have resorted to stealing as an occupation.
Is it because there are very few job opportunities in the country?
Or is it that stealing is an easy way to get money especially when one considers the sad fact that many Sierra Leoneans are allergic to work?
Or may I be correct to suggest that our young thieves are copying the bad example of some top government functionaries who are often caught stealing? For instance, very recently in Blama, Small Bo Chiefdom, Kenema, a whole court clerk was caught red-handed stealing a USB radio.
But I have observed that in Sierra Leone, we are inclined to admire successful thieves, perhaps this could be the reason why some of our youths have made robbery a way of life. But I am advising the JCs to be very vigilant this time as the thieves are lurking.
By Joseph Milton Lebbie
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