Members of the West Africa Road Safety Organization (WARSO), today October 6, 2021, paid a courtesy call on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Executive Management Board (EMB) of the Sierra Leone Police at the conference room of Police Headquarters, George Street, in Freetown.
The team (WARSO) which comprises of different nationals from both Anglophone and Francophone countries was headed by Madam Digie Aku, who doubles as the President of WARSO as well as the Director of Road Safety Agency in Mali.
In a short and precise statement, Madam Digie Aku expressed her warmest appreciation about the blissful welcome accorded her and the team and further expressed how happy she was to be in the midst of the IGP and the Executive Management of the SLP. She encouraged the Inspector General of Police to continue with the existing bilateral collaboration between the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) and the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA) with the view to ensuring absolute road safety in Sierra Leone.
In his response, the IGP – Dr. Ambrose Michael Sovula noted that because road crashes are predictable they are therefore preventable.
He acknowledged that three factors are responsible for road crashes: human, mechanical and infrastructural; stressing that all players in road safety and traffic management must take cognisance of these three factors.
“WARSO and all those involved in Road Safety should be properly trained in order to minimize road crashes which have resulted in more deaths and damage to properties. We must therefore uphold road safety issues through better partnership and cooperation – a synergy with all players, if we are to ensuring absolute road safety in the sub-region” Dr. Sovula asserted.
Earlier, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) – Mrs. Elizabeth Augusta Turay intimated the team that activities on road safety had been a top priority in the agenda of the SLP; emphasising that the SLP had maintained and sustained a very good relationship with the Road Safety Corps over the years, occasioned by the need to have an integrated approach towards road safety in the sub-region.
She further emphasised on the need for capacity building for Traffic Personnel of the SLP, the Road Safety Corps, drivers, riders, and pedestrians on the use of the road.
SLP MEDIA TEAM
6 October, 2021.
