Tankoro police station, to go
By Septimus Senessie in Kono
Inspector General of police has confirmed to journalists in Kono that the Tankoro Police Division, will soon be relocated because it falls within the 250 kilometre blast envelop of OCTEA diamond mining company. Other sources, among them civil society activists say most of the Tankoro area will also become a mining pit.
Police boss, Francis Munu said that although the Division covered nine of the 14 chiefdoms in the district it had to be moved to a suitable area so that the company could carry on with its mining activities in the district.
The announcement comes two months after the company succeeded to relocate God Is Our Light and the Seventh Day Adventists primary schools at Saquee town community. That relocation came at a cost after authorities of the schools proved defiant to OCTEA’s proposal, arguing that the relocation site was two miles from their original locations.
They feared that they might lose their large portions of land to the company, raising the issue of transportation cost to and from the schools.
IG Munu told Politico that they were relocating the Tankoro Police Division to secure the lives of police personnel against flying rocks of the company - a common occurrence when OCTEA carries out blasting. He emphasised that if the Division was not relocated it would endanger the lives of his men and that would also badly tell on the effectiveness and efficiency of normal operations.
He said that prior to his visit to the district, he had sent his deputy, Sahr Richard Moigbeh who is a native of Kono, to engage the traditional authorities in the district, especially those in the nine chiefdoms under the division.
He allayed the fears of the people of Kono by assuring that the relocation of the police division was not going to change their traditional functions of protecting life and property and the enforcement of law and order in the district.
Some of the youth who spoke to Politico, on the relocation of the Tankoro Police Division, expressed serious apprehension.
The district chairman of a civil society group Campaign for Just Mining described the move as “a clear recipe for violence and chaos in the district”.
Ibrahim Tamba Ahmed Bockarie alleged that the money budgeted for the relocation of the Tankoro Police division was about Le 200 million, which he said would not even be enough to construct the Local Unit Commander’s office and two cells, let alone the entire division.
He also argued that the proposed site for the relocation was too small to accommodate the police division and called on authorities concerned to look into the matter before it turned violent and chaotic. Politico hopes to put these issue to OCTEA in the coming days.
(C) Politico 17/04/14
