By Bampia James Bundu
The National Chairman of Campaign for Just Mining Sierra Leone, Leslie Mboka has called on Vice President Samuel Sam Sumana to apologize to the people of Kono for threatening to “smash” them if they failed to sit on the floor upon his instruction. Speaking at a press conference held at the YMCA Conference Hall in Freetown on Tuesday, Mboka said that on 17 and 18 December 2012, aggrieved workers of OCTEA Mining formally known as Koidu Holdings Limited staged a peaceful protest action to demonstrate their frustrations and dissatisfaction over poor working conditions and corporate deceit. He said the peaceful protest left two people dead and several others sustained serious gunshot wounds, adding that at the same time the entire Koidu was plunged into a state of panic. Mboka said two government delegations, one lead by the Minister of Mines and Marine Resources, Minkalu Mansaray and the other led by Vice President Sam Sumana visited Kono to address the situation but instead allegedly made it their priority to go straight to the mining company rather than first going to the communities and aggrieved workers to enquire about their grievances. Mboka said it was disappointing that the delegation of the mines minister went on board the official vehicle of the mining company to address the aggrieved, adding that such a move questioned their neutrality in handling the situation and subsequently spiraling the situation out of control. He said their greatest concern was the manner in which the vice president approached the issue by blaming the protesters for what he referred to as “taking the law in their hands” rather than addressing the root causes of the protest. He said the vice president then ordered all the aggrieved workers and community residents to sit down on the floor as a way of demonstrating his anger at them for disrupting the operations of the company. Mboka chided that for the vice president to ask the people to sit on the floor and to also threaten to “smash” anyone who dared to go against his words meant he knew the people were powerless and could bully them should they attempt to stage a strike action against the company. He therefore urged the vice president to go on air and officially apologize to his people for “disrespecting” them and for also “blatantly abusing his power” as vice president of the country. Madam Esther Musa, an indigene of Kono also called on the Vice President to apologize to his people as he owed them the power he currently wielded. She said his responsibility as vice president was to protect the people. Madam Musa described the incident as unfortunate on the path of the Vice president who could not be reached for a comment. (C) Politico 07/02/13
