By Septimus Senessie in Kono
MP for Constituency 21 in Kono district, Tamba Entochema Ebba has come under attack from parents and a civil society organisation in his constituency for allegedly "failing to pay the annual Le 5 million scholarship agreement he signed with the people during the 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections which earned him a seat in Parliament.
Addressing a news conference in Kono, the director of Sustainable Advocacy Network for Awareness and Development (SANAD) - the group which coordinates the scholarship - said the MP had "deliberately failed to pay the money as was agreed upon".
Tamba Timothy Mondeh said that during the 2012 election, the MP approached them "to organise parents and guardians in the constituency to vote him in as their MP and he would in turn provide Le 5 million annually to their children to service their school fees".
He said "the MP himself together with some heads of schools, parents and guardians of 50 secondary and primary school children launched the scholarship fund at Uncle Ben’s Hotel but that after winning the election, he failed to pay the money".
Mondeh claimed that they had held several meetings with the MP for him to pay the money without success.
The chairman of the Council of Principles in Kono, M.A.T. Foday said that he sympathised with the situation, "but as a council we cannot do anything for now to get the money from the MP and the only help we can provide for the parents is to lobby other heads of schools to release the report cards of the 50 pupils who are under the MP’s scholarship scheme in their schools".
Kumba Mattia, a parent, said "the only benefit we hoped to get from the MP was the scholarship he had promised us so we plead with him to make good on his promise".
In an interview with Politico, the MP, Tamba Ebba said he did make the promise to help with the education of the children in his constituency but that he made it clear at the time that it would depend on him being able to get the money.
He said he had told the project coordinator to be patient until money was available.
The governing APC party MP said he was however surprised that his coordinator went ahead to organise a press conference and appear on radio programmmes to create the impression that he (the MP) was unwilling to continue with the education support.
He said he had received several calls from people in Kono on the issue and "I doubt it very much if I will be able to continue working with the coordinator", he added.
(C) Politico 21/08/14
