FCC escapes fire

The Acting Mayor of the Freetown City Council, Alhaji Gibril Kanu (in photo) in an interview with this press said on Wednesday last week, at around 5:00 p.m., he received intelligence from one John Lasayoh, Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, that some unknown persons had plans to burn down the Freetown City Council Building.

He said he immediately alerted the Inspector General of Police, Francis Munu about the intelligence report, which prompted the police to mount tight security around the FCC Building until the next morning.

He recalled sometime in December 2011 at a general meeting all revenue collectors were warned to stop collecting monies but rather issued bank slips that contained the Council account number so that shop owners could pay direct and return the bank slip to the Council for a receipt acknowledging payment. He noted that some revenue collectors are still in the habit of issuing slips to shop owners and collecting cash.

The Mayor sited Aminata, a trader at the Kroo Town Road Market who produced a receipt to justify that she had paid to one revenue collector by the name of Mohamed P. Kamara.

The Mayor said on the scene Metropolitan officers were instructed to search Mohamed P Kamara and discovered a bundle of cheque books and the sum of Le500,000 inside his bag.

Sources state that the FCC revenue collector was dragged to the office to name the other collectors that are in the syndicate, he named Gibril; Kabbia, Councilors, and some workers of the Council.

The Mayor confirmed that since then, visitation on shops for payments have exposed many collectors who have collected money but failed to deposit the money in the Council Account. Shop owners justifying payment showed same to the committee set up by the acting Mayor. Council is tracing the signatures of those that have signed on behalf of the Council.

The acting Mayor related the incident of the intent to burning the FCC building to Councilors, Revenue Collectors, and other senior workers with the idea to destroy evidence relating to receipts that bear their signature.

He said he received numerous calls pleading to treat the issue internally but he had refused, adding that many issues of a similar nature have received inside settlement but no solution .To be continue in the next edition.

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