VP Foh’s unannounced visit to Port Loko
Last weekend unannounced visit of Vice President Victor Foh to Port Loko town got low key reception since the visit was said to be a mere Family meeting that the Vice President came to attend.
The Vice President, Dr. Victor Bockarie Foh himself said he was on his usual ‘Meet the People’ tour. The Vice President said he was in Port Loko with the permission of his boss, President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma to see how the people of Port Loko were fairing on, and that he would be proceeding to other parts of the country in subsequent months. ‘This is the same routine visits that our forefathers in politics used to make’, he reiterated.
The long hours spent in a close- door meeting at the residence of the Chief Immigration Officer in Port Loko, Mr. Kolifa Koroma, tells of a different story altogether, according to reports reaching the Sierra Leone News Agency (SLENA).
Reports say it was attended by a good number of the political heads of the district including the Northern Region Chairman of the APC, Hon. Alhaji Buya Kamara, Majority Party Leader in Parliament, Hon. Ibrahim Bundu, the Political Affairs Minister, Hon. Alhaji Ibrahim Kemoh Sesay and the Information and Communications Minister, Hon. Alhaji Alpha Kanu, who arrived at the tail end of the meeting.
The wife of the late S.I Koroma, Madam Mabinty Koroma and other prominent members of the Koroma Family including the Alhaji Yayah Deen Kamara were also in attendance.
One of the issues reported discussed at the meeting was the state of Bai Bureh Memorial Hall. Making statements at the meeting concerning the Hall, Madam Mabinty Koroma spoke of the wrong method of approach on the side of the political heads of the district. She said the building belongs to her late husband, S I Koroma, a onetime Vice President of this country. She explained how the building was allowed to be used by the All Peoples Congress Party for over 30 years. She said this did not in any way imply that it is now the property of the party.
She however thanked President Koroma and Vice President Victor Foh for their timely intervention. Reports add it was the Information and Communications Minister, Hon. Alhajie Alpha Kanu who apologised to the wife of late S I Koroma on behalf of the leadership of the APC party in the district.
It is worth recalling that the Bai Bureh Memorial Hall is the operational headquarters of the APC. But the building has not properly been taken care of. It was subsequently reduced to a brothel and a breeding ground for several criminal activities. The Conference Hall converted itself to a swimming Pool whenever there is a heavy down pour of rain after every other furniture had been carted away by thieves. In spite of the fact that it is the party in power, none of the party politicians or successful descendants of the district were organised enough to have it rehabilitated.
A committee to rehabilitate building was set up through the inspiration of Hon. Ibrahim Bundu, but sources say members of the Committee for the Rehabilitation of the Building never saw the need to either confer or notify the family of the late man. When Madam Mabinty Koroma learnt that the building has been unroofed and that the rehabilitation has commenced in earnest she went and cried for the intervention of the President.
It is gathered that the President himself was not properly briefed on this development and was quite angry with the organisers of the project. The Vice President was therefore asked by his boss to prevail on the Koroma family to keep cool and allow the rehabilitation to continue undisrupted.
Meanwhile, the contractor for the rehabilitation project to measure up to expected standards. He said work will recommence this week and appealed for the cooperation of all.
By Hassan Bruz
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
© 2016, https:. All rights reserved.
