A Kotu Senior Secondary teacher is alleged to have been cuffed and driven around town for an hour by officers of the Police Intervention Unit during the weekend.

Musa Bah, a renown teacher and writer, took to Facebook yesterday to share news of the arrest. 

He wrote that a reliable source told him that “a PIU officer sat on his [teacher] shoulder and they drove him round the vicinity for almost an hour before taking him to the Senegambia Police Station.”

Mr Bah disclosed that the incident happened after “one of the students was on his way to the mosque when he saw the PIU chasing students of other schools, the boy also ran to the school and they pursued him up to the school where he was arrested. 

“The teacher in question, Mr Lamin Sillah, asked them the reason for arresting the student. He reminded them that as it was a school, before arresting a student the officers must inform the administration. The officers reportedly got angry that this teacher was trying to tell them how to do their jobs. They insulted him and took him away in a very disrespectful manner.”

However he added that “the other staff members went to the station after Jummah (Friday prayers) to ask the Station Officer why his men had behaved in that manner. 

“The officers arrested another of the teachers there and then. The teachers who were present decided as they could not reach their principal on phone, they should go back to the school and hold an emergency staff meeting.

“At that point, someone claiming to be the commanding officer invited the teachers into his office. He apologised to them and said that his officers did not act according to law. He urged them not to make this a big thing but that they should forgive and move on.”

Police have been contacted for comment. 

Reporting by Adama Makasuba