By Septimus Senessie in Kono
The Technical Committee of a network of civil society organizations in Kono have challenged the leaders of the coalition for “arbitrarily signing the OCTEA Koidu Limited’s Resettlement Action Plan (RAP-2) document “without the prior notice” of their memberships. The committee, formed by a coalition of civil society groups in Kono and the Kono District Civil Society Network (KDCSN), accused the network comprising IRC, World Vision Sierra Leone, IBIS, Action Aid Sierra Leone and NMJD technical committee, Knowledge for Community Empowerment Organization (KoCEPO) and Advocacy for Vulnerable Aid (AVA) and some representatives from the general public. Patrick Lamim Tongu,told Politico that the actionby the executive members of their network was “nothing other than mortgaging the integrity of civil society advocacy strides in the district.” He said the secret signing of the document could spark off conflict with the affected communities. He said theyhad refused to sign when the document was first brought in for their endorsement and prior to the approval of other stakeholders, including the minister of mines and the paramount chief Paul Gabba Saqueeof Tankoro chiefdom. “We unanimously agreed in a meeting that we should not join other stakeholders who had already signed the document without seeking the interests of their people and the pending dangers if our recommendations are not factored in the document”, he said. Tongu also alleged that with due consultation with the network, the two executive committee members, Athor Kargbo, who is also the executive secretary of the network and district coordinator of AVA and Mohamed Jalloh, the district coordinator of KoCEPO went ahead “secretly and signed the document without informing the dozens of CSOs and the thousands affected by mining activities of OCTEA”. He said the abrupt signing of the document by the two was a big concern to any meaningful Sierra Leonean given that they were the last resort to the OCTEA mining affected people in the district. He insisted that “what is the essence of us commenting on and signing of the document after other stakeholders had already signed it,” he asked, saying that OCTEA thought they could “foolish and dump all of us just like that.” He faulted the OCTEA’s RAP-2 document and specially picked on what he said was “the non completion of various recommendations and provisions in the RAP-1 document and the failure by the company to properly explain to the affected people those provisions in the document.” He also alleged that the two public meetings held at the Miatta conference Hall in Freetown, and which ended up on bitter confrontation between members of the Kono Students’ Union and the one at Fachema Hall in Koidu “were not consultative and interactive”. He added that in those two meetings, the affected people were subjected to “serious intimidations” by the company and in particular Dibgy Wells who did the EPA survey. He said the people were not allowed to bring issues and ask question affecting them and were not captured in the document. Tongusaid after identifying those flaws in the document, they bilaterally made their recommendations as civil society group in the district and sent them to OCTEA to be factored in the document, alleging that the OCTEA only “acknowledged the receipt of our recommendations but were not factored in the document.” He this was a deliberate tempt by OCTEA to keep enslaving the people in district. He described the signing of the document by the network as “recipe to violence and conflict.” Responding to claims and allegations, the Executive Secretary of KDCSN, Athor Kargbo, sounding livid, described the claims and allegations as “a result of some ego.” He denied any wrong doing by signing the document, adding that other stakeholders had already signed it, including the minister and the paramount chief of Tankoro chiefdom. Even though he could not tell who exactly appended his signature on the document, he confirmed that the document was signed by one of them. © Politico 07/11/13
