Under Fayia Sellu’s Watch… Trust In Police Reduces

By Aruna Momoh Kargbo

It has been revealed that there is a very low level of trust between the people and the Sierra Leone Police as a survey with question on “How much do you trust the police?” indicates.

This was captured in a survey by the Afrobarometer which is a non-partisan African research network that conducts nationally representative surveys on democracy, governance and quality of life. The survey covered the three (3) period of 2021 to 2023.

Out of Thirty-Nine (39) African countries that were covered by the survey, Sierra Leone ranked at the bottom 4 as one of the countries with a low level of trust in the police by the people.

This is happening under the watch of the current police boss, William Fayia Sellu even though he took the head of the Police in 2021 as he took over in August 2022.

According to the percentage score captured by the survey, only 7% of the people trust the police “a lot” and only 12% trust the police “somewhat” thereby, creating a huge gap of trust.

According to 53,444 interviews in 39 countries, fewer than half (46%) of African adults say they trust the police “a lot” (23%) or even “somewhat” (23%).

Based on the survey only two countries on the continent recorded majorities who trust the police “a lot”: Senegal (62%) and Niger (60%).

In contrast, an amazing 3% of Nigerians – that’s one out of 33 adults – express solid trust in their police, and police in other African powerhouses fare only slightly better, including Ghana (7%), South Africa (11%), and Kenya (13%).

Trust in the police (“somewhat” or “a lot”) is considerably higher in North and West Africa (51% and 50%, respectively) than in other regions (37%-43%). And trust increases with age (from 44% of youth to 53% of elders) and with economic status (44% of the poorest versus 50% of the wealthy).

And that if low public trust is a problem for police work, many African police forces have a problem.