By Bampia James Bundu
A row has broken out among executive members of the Sierra Leone Bike Riders' Union with some members of the body accusing the ruling All People's Congress party (APC) of "undermining" the operations of the union executive.
Alusine Dumbuya, the national Public Relations Officer told Politico that when they took up office, they did so to represent their membership and serve them properly irrespective of political differences.
"Our major challenge has been our president, in the person of David Sesay who has been using the union for political reasons and to seek political sympathy in the ruling APC," he said.
He revealed that ahead of the 2012 election President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma gave the union two vehicles, 20 motor bikes and helmets which they used to campaign and rally behind the APC. He said they had an agreement in the union executive not to support a particular party as they should render their services to all political parties and remain an independent body.
Dumbuya accused David Sesay of "using his APC connections to suppress the operations of the executive claiming that he has political backing and nobody will remove him from the union".
The PRO explained that the two vehicles were given to them had been grounded by their president and that the executive was now struggling to effectively do its job. He blamed the president for causing the union to default on its loan with the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank from which he [the president] allegedly collected the lion's share".
The organistion's Financial Secretary, Amadu Conteh described their president as a "dictator" adding "we want him to pay back all he owes the SLCB".
Conteh said the union was now in disarray due to the "poor leadership skills" of the president.
Responding to the allegations the president, David Sesay described the allegations as "baseless and a direct ploy to destroy my hard-earned reputation".
He said members of his executive "are being naïve and cowardly by accusing me of being political". He said "when the President [Ernest Bai Koroma] gave us two vehicles and 20 bikes, no one grumbled; when monies were shared among members no one shouted politics, why shout now?" he asked rhetorically.
"The two vehicles were given to us by the president during the campaign and the vehicles were used and wrecked during the campaign" Sesay said, asking, "do I have to take any blame for that?"
He said all executive members of the union owe the SLCB because "the loan was shared to all national executive members and some regional executive members".
Sesay denied being a politician a dictator because "all I have done I have done in consultation with the executive".
Meanwhile police fought running battles with bike riders in Bo yesterday leading to the arrest of 11 of the bikers.
According to the Bo District Police Media Officer, Inspector Abu Bakarr S. Kamara, it followed a scuffle that broke after they attempted to arrest a commercial bike rider who was allegedly carrying two passengers who were with a crash helmet and the rider was unlicensed. He said the rider resisted arrest and scolded the policeman leading to his injury.
He said the riders later converged and attacked the Bo east End Police and uprooted its fence. He said they used teargas and had slammed a ban on all motorbikes from riding the streets of Bo from 8:00 PM to 6:00 am. He denied his men fired any bullets.
However a civil society activist who mediated in the melee, John Bangura of Hope Sierra Leone, said the police did shoot life rounds but did so in the air to disperse the crown. He blamed the incident on the bike riders whom he said were riotous.
Efforts to reach the bike riders proved futile as their Bo District Chairman would not pick our calls.
(C) Politico 05/06/14
