Sierra Leone Police have reportedly detained, arrested and jailed six former students of a prestigious all-girls secondary school in the southern region of the country, for allegedly failing to obtain a police clearance before going on a cross country running event, police confirmed to TV-News24.

The six former students of Queen of the Rosary Secondary School in Bo, according to police sources, were arrested and jailed on Saturday for alleged illegal gathering.

And as of the time of filing this report, the jailed students were still in custody, negotiating for their release, TV-News24 was told.

QRS, the secondary school, according to reports, was organizing its ‘Queen’s Week’ celebrations – but not all activities were permitted. Particularly, police said, the cross country running event wasn’t part of this year’s QRS’s celebrations.

Nonetheless, some of the former students – old girls – decided to start the celebrations with the cross country running event.

Thus, they arranged with some students that are currently enrolled at the school, to join them in the cross country running event, according to reports.

Despite an official letter to police requesting clearance to engage in a cross country running event, wasn’t approved, police said. And since the request for police clearance wasn’t approved, Bo west police division Local Unit Commander Commissioner Shaku Kamara, said it was unacceptable for the students to go ahead with organizing and participating in the cross country running event.

Therefore, he said, police went with their police vehicle(s), and arrested some of the students – both current and former.

Kamara said “there was a press release by the police banning activities like cross country in the country.”

The current students have since been released from police custody, according to reports, while the former students remained locked up in jail.

Kamara added that the former students are in police custody because police investigations found that they were the ones who instigated the current students to go on the streets – and participate in the cross country running event.

Police said school authorities were strongly against organizing and participating in the cross country event. Kamara, the LUC, said police had placed a ban on cross country running exercises because the event(s) had been obstructing traffic and businesses in the country.