By Septimus Senessie in Kono
The Parliamentary Committee on Defense and National Security has instructed the District Security Committee (DISC) and the police to bring to book the Paramount Chief alleged to have beaten up a soldier on deployment at his chiefdom in 2012.
The committee made this call during a fact-finding mission in Kono district on the causes of the frequent violence in the district.
The identity of the soldier, who is stationed at the 9th Infantry Battalion at Sembakoro village just outside Koidu, was however not disclosed.
The Kono District Human Rights Committee chairman, Rev. Sahr Christian Fayah said the incident happened in 2012. Quoting an eye witness , he said PC Aiah Abu Mbawa Kongorba of Mafindor chiefdom allegedly “slapped the military officer in question for allegedly interrogating him at their check-point asking him where he was going to”. He said the eye-witness further told them that the chief, who had represented Kono Paramount chiefs in Parliament for 15 years and also served as a Member of Parliament in the Pan-African Parliament, regarded such a question posed to him by the soldier in his own chiefdom as “a big insult on him and a disrespect against his person.”
Rev Fayah said the eye-witness further told them that the Paramount Chief whose chiefdom borders Guinea, also allegedly ordered a group of young men in his chiefdom to beat up the soldier.
He said the matter was taken up by DIC and his Human Rights Group and later resolved that the chief apologise to the officer but that since then he had not done so. He said they had visited the barrack to apologise on behalf of the chief but they were denied by the soldiers who insisted that the chief himself must do so.
The ONS coordinator in the district, Sorie Ibrahim Koroma told the committee that he met the matter on his table when he took up office almost a year ago and that he had since engaged the chief in question to apologise to the soldier but that he had apparently refused to do so.
He said the paramount chief could be experiencing some psychiatric problem tinged with memory loss. A condition the parliamentary committee chairman, Leonard Fofana, MP, said warranted his removal from office.
He said some paramount chiefs in the country were becoming too powerful at the same time claiming powers which they did not deserve. He cited Kenema district as a case in point where he said paramount chiefs say they have the power to appoint the District Chief Imam. “This is a farfetched power which they do not deserve and is recipe for conflict,” he warned.
A member of the committee, Amadu Fofana, MP, condemned in a strongest term the alleged beating of the soldier saying “Paramount Chiefs who are suppose to help peace to prevail in their chiefdoms are the ones igniting conflict". He said such an attitude was uncalled for.
The police local unit commander of the Tankoro Police Division, Superintendent David Sahid Koroma said it was difficult to bring to book a paramount chief because of the respect of position in the country.
(C) Politico 17/07/14
