By Kevin Lamdo
Over 100 people were rendered homeless yesterday at a Freetown seaside settlement off Cape Road at Aberdeen after they were forcefully evicted by truckloads of soldiers allegedly acting on the orders of Minister of Defence Palo Conteh. Some of them were children as young as three years who screamed while their parents struggled to save the little of their household they could. While some soldiers were engaged in the demolition of the structures, OSD personnel were busy arresting women who cried foul of the eviction process. They were arrested under the pretext they were “obstructing” their work.
Soldiers from the Army Engineering Unit and others attached to the Defence Minister plus a truckload of police officers demolished over fifteen houses in the area. One of the victims, Rugiatu Kamara, believed to be in her 70s, said she acquired her plot of land over 30 years ago from the Lands Ministry and that she and her sons Abdulai, Yayah and Issa had managed to build on it. In tears, she said that two years ago Defence Minister Palo Conteh asked them to surrender their land to him as he had secured the greater part of the plot.
When they refused, Yayah Kamara said, Palo Conteh offered them an 8-town lot of military land at Yams Farm in exchange for the pristine seaside plot where they said the minister wanted to build a jetty.
The family said they were surprise to have been issued with an eviction notice. They said they had been summoned before Magistrate Alfred Tommy Ganda of Court No 4 yesterday when they saw a group of army engineers accompanied by OSD and regular Police personnel who entered their premises and forcefully evicted their tenants and started knocking down the buildings.
A bailiff from the Law courts Undersheriff department, Joseph Korvoma told Politico that all due eviction and demolition process was followed and that they had been stubborn to quit. He said they had a court order signed by Magistrate Bankole Shyllon.
As the demolition was going on, Rugiatu received a telephone call apparently from Law Courts building that she should appear before Magistrate Ganda in defence of the said property under demolition. It is still unclear how the matter would still be in court at the same time an eviction notice was being carried out.
Defence Minister Palo Conteh confirmed to Politico that he had ordered the army engineers to demolish the structures following a court order. He said the land was his and the court had proved just that. He confirmed that he had offered an 8-town lot to Rugiatu and her three children on a state land and Le 10 million to help them resettle after knowing that they were Limbas, his tribes people. He said they had initially agreed to move from the land but that they reneged on it later.
