By Septimus Senessie in Kono
A councillor of Ward 63 in Koidu has accused Paramount Chief Paul Garber Saquee V of Tankoro Chiefdom of "illegally selling" 30 metres of land to OCTEA Ltd "without consulting the chiefdom council."
Councillor Kai Lawrence Mbayo alleged that the recent extension of OCTEA’s mining concession by 30 metres to the centre of Tankoro Big Market came some four years after the chief also “illegally and singularly added a 830-metre piece of land to the concession areas of the company.”
The councillor also alleged that “OCTEA mining company is currently mining illegally on a 1,600-metre piece of land which the Paramount Chief is aware of.”
Councillor Mbayo said the "illegal extension" of OCTEA's mining concession was brought to the attention of the then UN Special Representative, Michael Schulenburg for his intervention before it would descend into a land conflict in the chiefdom. He said that before the UN rep left Sierra Leone, he recommended through his representative in a meeting held at the UN compound in Koidu that an independent body be established to resurvey and demarcate the entire concession area of OCTEA to avoid conflict, adding that the implementation of the recommendation was on when the Schulenburg was withdrawn from the country.
Councillor Mbayo also accused PC Saquee of being "an advocate" of OCTEA whenever it involved the fulfilment of the company's obligation to the chiefdom. He said the chief was always on the side of the miner against his own people by giving excuses for the company that it was not making profit. He said the chief would defend OCTEA whenever the company was asked to fulfil an agreement that required it to pay the sum of US$ 100,000 for the education of children in the chiefdom or the annual 10% of the company's profit for community development as enshrined in the 2009 Mines and Minerals Act.
The councillor said that as indigenes of Tankoro Chiefdom, they were seriously concerned over the rapid advancement of the company’s operations in Koidu, adding that if the government did not put an immediate halt to the practice, their "action against the company would be felt bitterly by the entire country and the world at large.”
Responding to the allegations, P.C Saquee described the allegations as “nonsensical and sheer ignorance,” adding that it was not under his purview as a traditional leader to extend a mining concession by even “an inch.” When asked who marked the Tankoro Market for demolition, the chief said that was news to him.
He said the allegation that OCTEA's mining concession was illegally extended by 1,600 meters was “totally untrue,” adding that OCTEA was operating apparently above a “4 square kilometre radius blast envelope.”
On the company's annual 10% profit for community development and the US$ 100,000 for the education of children of Tankoro chiefdom and Kono District as a whole, PC Saquee pointed out that “OCTEA has not reached the profit-making stage and even if it reaches to that point it is the government that determines whether OCTEA is making profit or not."
He said OCTEA had vowed to implement the policies enshrined in the Mines and Minerals Act 2009, “but it is the government that is slow in setting up structures that will see the implementation of most of those policies.”
(C) Politico 08/05/14
