APC Mayor, MPs and Councilors Attacked
Sunday 4th October was a scene of disgrace and mouth washing for Mayor Hebert George Williams and a cross section of All People’s Congress Members of Parliament and Councilors at Leicester as the community people took to lambasting them for what they described as their failure to meet expectations since their election in 2007.
Mayor Herbert Williams
The incident occurred when the high power delegation including Hon. Raymond Moses Jones, MP of Constituency 92, City Mayor Williams and Chairman of the Western Area Rural District Council Hon. Alhassan Cole went to Leicester in a bid to reconcile a difference between the community and their councilor, Margaret Kargbo over a stand-off that has lasted for over five months.Â
The show down came when a meeting was convened in the Leicester Community Hall. As soon as the meeting was called to order, the community members started booing the visitors and heaping abuses at them.
“Betrayers, Banya Fakee, Tiff man, Ayampee,” were the words used in shouting down the politicians who were not given a chance to make their voices heard.
The community people also threatened to kick the mayor and his entourage out of the hall, and said they will not allow any APC parliamentarian or councilor to win in their community in the next elections.
The Leicester people accused Councilor Margaret Kargbo of using her powers in the APC to grab community land and described her as fighting for her own interest rather than that of the interest of the community. Hon. Raymond Jones also came under a fiery attack. “Since you won the election here in 2007, when once have you ever visited the community to see how we are doing if not for anything,” an elderly man shouted a question at Hon Raymond Moses Jones, pointing fingers in his face.
 “Our village is the most deprived community around the Western Area in terms of electricity, water supply and road network. We voted for them so that we can see an alleviation in our suffering but this man turned his back on us like sheep without shepherd” a rather frail-looking spokesman of the community pointed out.
The people stated that what is paining them most is the land dispute between them and Councilor Margaret Kargbo whom they said illegally erected a structure on a land belonging to the community. “When we raised concern, Margaret ordered thugs to vandalize our houses and properties and some of us seriously were beaten because we stood for right and justice,” the old man fumed.
After pacifying the angry crowd, Rev. Samura a member of the community who chaired the meeting acknowledged the anger of the people saying “I am aware that you are bitter with your councilor which I think you have extended to the Member of Parliament but I encourage you to please have patience and let all come together and find ways to iron this out amicably,” he appealed.
The Mayor of Freetown Herbert George Williams in his brief statement expressed his heart felt sadness about the problems and appealed to them to exercise patience as the authorities will look into the issue. “Plans are on the pipeline to bring development in the village” the Mayor promised.
Hon. Raymond Jones after withstanding loud jeers finally succeeded in making his voice heard. In his brief speech, repeatedly interrupted by hecklers, he noted that he has taken the plight of the people into consideration and that he has put modalities in place to bring massive development in the community by the end of the year. “You should not blame me for the present conditions of the community, and I am appealing to you to exercise patience,” he shouted in a hoarse voice.
The meeting ended without following the planned agenda as the people were in a hostile mood and continued chanting angrily in the face of their speech. Even as the mayor and his entourage drove off from the village, they were followed by jeering crowd. “This is a bad sign for the APC which is just celebrating their first two years in power,” said a student residing in Leicester.
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Angthorf
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I contacted my mom last week and she passed me the shocking news. She told me that they don’t expect any yield in their walla rice farms this year because of the heavy down pour of rains. The swelling water has caused the submerging of the planted rice for nearly two months and consequently lead to a devastating destruction of our people’s labour for the year.
When I got the sad news I started to wonder how our people will manage to sustain their livelihood for this year. I enquired if there is a way to get seedlings for a replant of rice to the already destroyed farm rice in the whole Walla region. She sadly replied that there is nothing of the such!
The big question to be raised here is that – Do the government and the people of Sierra Leone know what it means to them for a failed rice harvest in the Walla Region? Can the the MPs and the Counselors of the Walla Region come up up with a remedy to salvage the lives of our helpless people? Why not ask the Minister of Agriculture to import rice seedlings from India and Pakistan to be freely given to our youths in the region to work on the swamp farms instead of loafing around in Freetown? The months of November, December and January can still be a suitable period to plant rice on the rich sediment swampy farms in the region thst will bring benefit for the nation.
It is high time we establish a Ministry for Food Security as the entire country is suffering from food shortage. We have to know that hunger as well as ignorance kill. Our people are facing eminent malnutrition and possible slow death if the concerned authority failed to take adequate measures to rescue the alarming situation in the Walla Farming Regions.
25th October 2009