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Monday 29 August 2011

'News Hunters' Commences Print Publication Soon

The Sierra Leone News Hunters management is concluding arrangements to commence its publications on print in Sierra Leone.

The print publication which is expected to carry a similar name as the online outlet, albeit slight modifications, may hit the news stands by the end of September or the start of October this year.

The News Hunters will consist of a strong team of trained and qualified journalists that will usher in positive changes in the country's media landscape.

It will serve as an apolitical news outlet, that will disseminate objective, fearless, favourless, and non partisan information of public interest.

Don't expect new names but new things in the media landscape.

Stay glued right here for updates on the Sierra Leone News Hunters (Ariogbo) Newspaper.

And feel free to drop your comments below on what you will like to see on the "Ariogbo" newspaper, and be rest assured that your views would be highly considered.   

Thursday 25 August 2011

Maada Bio Unites with Awareness Times Journalists

Maada Bio, Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) Presidential Candidate and Awareness Times Newspaper Journalists - Sylvia Blyden, Publisher, Abdul Karim Fonti Kabia, Editor, and Bampia Bundu, Reporter - have reached an amicable settlement over the long standing standoff.

The peace talks were mediated by Members of Parliameent (MPs) representing the SLPP.

Maada Bio is expected to soon put out a press statement on his stance on the issue, whilst the Awareness Times Newspaper is expected to do same.

It could be recalled that Maada Bio's supporters attacked and manhandled Bampia Bundu at the Law Courts Building in Freetown in December last year. 

Abdul Fonti, the Awareness Times Newspaper Editor had also reported that Maada Bio personally telephoned and threatened him for publishing what Maada considered as negative articles against him.

All efforts by the newspaper to get Maada Bio to publicly dissociate himself from the two incidents proved unsuccessful.

The Awareness Times had since December put up what the Publisher described as "protective jackets" until Thursday night.
  
The final peace talks that were held on Thursday night lasted for over four hours, but ended on a fine note.

Meanwhile, the Awareness Times Newspaper has made it clear that making peace with Maada Bio does not, and will not compromise the newspaper's objective stands.
Bampia, Maada, Fonti
Feel free to leave a comment below.

Monday 22 August 2011

The SLPP I Knew Is No More!

The main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) is currently in a sorrowful state, much to the puzzlement and disappointment of sober minded citizens.
It is an undisputable fact that the SLPP used to be a very serious and respectable political party in the country’s political landscape.

The SLPP used to serve as an epitome of political tolerance, peace, education, and a political setting comprised of sober-minded people in Sierra Leone. The party was well known for its respect for the women folks and the rule of law.

SLPP's Tejan Kabbah
For us younger folks, we need not even go into the wonderful legacies of the SLPP during the days of Sir Milton Margai and others to back our argument about the glorious days of the SLPP. The actions of the Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah led SLPP between 1996 and 2007 are enough to exalt the image of the SLPP.

Sadly however, all of the aforementioned fine traits that the SLPP used to enjoy are no more. Now, the name SLPP is largely associated with negative adjectives including killer party, violence party, and of late, “mammy cuss” party. Yes, the SLPP is now known for publicly and officially abusing the mothers of people that holds contrary views from their actions and ideologies. More on the new “mammy cuss” face of the SLPP would be dealt with in subsequent paragraphs.

Bad Decision
It is an open secret that the SLPP’s clean image started to encounter dirty spots during the campaign periods of the party’s internal elections. The said campaigns were marred by physical violence and public raining of abusive languages between and among supporters of leading flagbearer aspirants. Even the National Leader and Chairman of the party, John Oponjo Benjamin was not spared the abusive languages (mammy cusses) and physical attacks. The gentleman was severally attacked by supporters believed to be associated with a particular flagbearer aspirant.

Unfortunately for the party, it never heed to the numerous patriotic and loyal calls for an immediate halt in such a negative trend. All of such calls were not only recklessly rebuffed, but some journalists including myself, actually became victims of life threatening remarks and physical torture by supporters and senior SLPP members.

The alarm bell sounded by the Awareness Times that the SLPP does not deserve a Julius Maada Bio choice was also outrightly dismissed. On Monday 1st August 2011, the SLPP announced that Julius Maada Bio has been elected to lead the party to the 2012 presidential elections.
SLPP'S Maada Bio
That announcement marks the end of the great, respected and treasured SLPP image. In other words, the decision of the SLPP to put a man with a dirty past that is still fresh in the memories of Sierra Leoneans at the helm of the party’s 2012 presidential bid was the end of the good image the SLPP used to enjoy, and the beginning of a rotten SLPP episode.

Evidently, it’s been over three weeks now since the August 1st announcement of the opposition presidential candidate and all what the SLPP has been doing is defending a presidential standard-bearer with a blemished character. If the SLPP is not defending extra-judicial killing allegations against Maada, it would be defending dubious passport deals and other fraudulent undertakings believed to have been sanctioned by its presidential candidate. The SLPP has also been defending a faked military rank that its presidential candidate confided to himself.

As all of the aforementioned is happening, many people know that the defensive spree which the SLPP currently finds itself in is just the tip of the iceberg. Some of us are optimistic that the SLPP will not only stop at defending its choice of a candidate called Maada Bio on the newspaper pages and radio airwaves, but the defense will surely graduate to the court rooms.

The bad omen in this is that while Maada Bio would be in the court rooms to plead guilty or not guilty to countless criminal offences during the height of the 2012 presidential elections, the former insurance broker Ernest Bai Koroma would be traversing the length and breathe of the country telling the citizens about his infrastructural and other achievements.

Mammy Cuss SLPP
As if the SLPP has not done itself enough harm by electing a presidential candidate that needs to clarify his role in the extra-judicial brutal murders of my maternal cousin Salamatu Kamara and 28 other Sierra Leoneans, plus many other things, the SLPP’s official newspaper resorted to adding more woes to the party’s already dented image. SLPP’s Unity newspaper is now printing and selling abusive languages against the mothers of people who venture into informing the public about the vicious tendencies of Maada Bio.

Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, the female Publisher of Awareness Times Newspaper and David Tam Baryoh of the popular Monologue radio programme, were last week singled out by the Unity Newspaper as being adversaries of Maada Bio’s presidential bid, and all sorts of abusive languages (mammy cusses) were published against them.
Sylvia Blyden

This is the current gutter state that the once respectable SLPP has reduced itself to – officially raining mammy cusses on respectable female personalities.

What is more worrying and puzzling is the fact that such abusive languages emanating from the SLPP’s official newspaper are directed at Sylvia Olayinka Blyden of all. Am holding no brief for Sylvia, who is always well-placed to adequately take care of such attacks against her, but I cannot resist the urge to take on the SLPP for displaying such ungratefulness backed with rudeness against the country’s only female newspaper publisher.

Notwithstanding the fact that she has never been a member of the SLPP, Sylvia has not only been mostly perceived by many as an SLPP member but has actually been faced with various forms of attacks for the sake of the SLPP. This woman is on record of being a passionate defender of the SLPP and its general membership to an extent of risking her very life. With the aforementioned reality and more, it came as a shock to many Sierra Leoneans to read in the SLPP’s Unity Newspaper abusive languages against Sylvia Blyden’s mother. The mere fact that the SLPP can sanction a publication containing unprintable invectives is absurd, whilst the party’s temerity to direct such mammy cusses at Sylvia Blyden’s mother is one mistake that will surely see the SLPP’s downfall in this country; mark my words.

This is ungratefulness at its highest and it lends credence to the general belief that the SLPP is an ungrateful party. If the SLPP members thought publishing abusive languages in its official newspaper against Sylvia is the best way to intimidate her from exposing the excesses of Maada Bio, they must be surely dreaming. This is naivety and stupidness in the highest degree. SLPP must stop blaming and abusing people’s mothers for its failure to choose an acceptable candidate. Wuna blame wuna sef!

IMC’s Negligence
The recent Unity publications are typical examples of the type of publications the Independent Media Commission (IMC) must not tolerate. But the editors of Unity are having field days raining mammy cusses at people’s mothers. One thing the IMC must know for sure is the fact that nobody has monopoly on mammy cusses. The continuation of such publications backed by the negligence of the IMC to punish the perpetrators will definitely attract similar or even more unpleasant responses. And the IMC will have itself to blame for woefully failing on their duties.

SLPP! Mammy Cuss!! The SLPP is finished.

Sunday 21 August 2011

Wellington Thugs Attack Editor & Family

The Editor for Awareness Times Newspaper, currently on leave, his mother Mrs. Kadiatu Kamara and his sister, Fatmata Fonti Kabia, came under brutal attacks in the morning hours of Saturday 20th August 2011 at Wellington by area thugs.

Editor Abdul Karim Fonti Kabia and her elder sister were escorting their sick mother to the hospital when the Philip Street (Station One) thugs descended on them with sticks, stones and bottles, and unleashed mayhem on them.

It all started when a playing boy materialized from nowhere and nearly got himself crushed by the Benz in which Fonti and his family were driving.

Fonti’s mother was attacked with insults when she climbed down the car and politely cautioned the area people to warn their children against playing in the streets to avoid accident.

In no time, the area thugs surrounded the vehicle and placed a big stone in front of one of the tires insisting that the vehicle was going no where, as according to them, the vehicle hit the boy.

“Well, if you are insisting that our vehicle hit the boy, let’s forget the argument and let us take the boy to the hospital in our car,” Fonti told the crowd of area boys, while informing them that his mother was seriously sick and cannot afford to stay long to reach the hospital.

The thugs insisted that nobody was going anywhere until police arrives.

It was at this juncture that Fonti attempted to remove the stone from the vehicle after making clear that the area boys have no right to impound the vehicle, especially so when the boy that was allegedly hit was standing upright with not a single abrasion, and due to the fact that his mother was in urgent need of medical attention.

Fonti’s attempt to remove the stone from the vehicle was rebuffed by four heavy muscled men who descended on him and started hitting him indescrimately with sticks and stones. His sister and sick mother also faced similar attacks.

Fonti later rushed to the Kissy Police Division to seek police intervention to restore law and order in the area that had been transferred to a gangster cartel.

All of the thugs disappeared into thin air by the time the police arrived at the scene. The matter is however being rigorously investigated.

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Wilkinson Road Project Full of Lies


Works Minister Alimamy
Provoked by recent utterances by the Minister of Works, Housing and Infrastructure, Alimamy P. Koroma, this piece seeks to expose the numerous lies and irregularities that have plagued the Wilkinson Road Project being undertaken by a Chinese Construction Company called China Railway Seventh Group.

Just a couple of days ago, Minister Koroma stormed the weekly government press briefing to ‘assure’ the general populace that the Wilkinson Road Project would the completed soon. He furthered that the completed road would be commissioned in October this year.

Minister Koroma blamed the delay in completing the road work on traffic jam and utility companies including Guma Valley Water Company (GVWC), National Power Authority (NPA) and Sierratel. According to him, the work being undertaken by the aforementioned utility companies, vis-à-vis, transfer of their facilities from the right of way to suitable positions, is serving as a major impediment towards the speedy completion of the road.

The above mentioned assertions can only be best described as ‘true lies’ similar to ones being made in the past by certain government officials.

Before critically analyzing the comments of the Minister, let us first and foremost reflect on the timeframe and general irregularities that have so far marred the project under review.

The Wilkinson Road Project, which officially kick-started on July 2010, was supposed to end on July 2011. However, the overall contract agreement, including the sum involved in the contract, remained in absolute secrecy. There are also worrying revelations that the contract between the Government of Sierra Leone and the Chinese Company flouted national procurement rules and regulations.

With this background, the first statement that was expected from the Minister is to tell the people of this country that the China Railway Seventh Group has breached the contract agreement by exceeding its one-year timeframe. He was further expected to announce punitive actions against the Chinese Company for flouting the contract agreement.

Disappointingly however, Minister Koroma, by his utterances, succeeded in portraying himself as the public relations officer of the Chinese company. His public relations undertaking only succeeded in doing more harm than good, as a result of the flimsy excuses and fake assurances he forwarded on behalf of the Chinese Company. Little wonder that these Chinese contractors always treat journalists with utter contempt whenever they are approached for comments on the Wilkinson Road Project. They always tell journalists to “go and ask government” for clarifications on the project. Even when you ask them to tell you when are they expecting to complete the work, they will tell you “go and ask government”. Can the government clearly explain the type of agreement it signed with these Chinese people that they (the Chinese Company) cannot even speak to journalists but rely on the government to serve as their public relations agent?   

Also, does the minister expect his excuse, suggesting that the utility companies were responsible for the delay in completing the work, to hold sway, when the fact remains that the work to be done by those utility companies were supposed to have reflected in the contract agreement, especially with regards to timeframe? Or does the minister want us to believe that the various parties to the contract never took cognizance of the fact that NPA, GVWC and Sierratel had their poles, pipes and cables planted along the new right of way? Some of us are even beginning to think that these utility companies were never contacted prior to the commencement of the contract. This belief is based on the fact that NPA, GVWC and Sierratel only moved in to relocate their facilities at a time when the demolition of structures along the right of way, including poles, cables, transmitters and pipes, had already commenced. The aforementioned occurrence succeeded in subjecting Wilkinson Road and its environs to months of blackout and water crisis. What a bad contract!

These utility companies should have been the first to relocate their properties prior to the commencement of any professional road work. But this was not the case with the Wilkinson Road Project. It was only after the Chinese Contractors had damaged a considerable amount of government property that the utility companies rushed in to repair the damage and save the remaining government property. 

A glance at the Wilkinson Road Project speaks volume of the fact that there is no possibility to complete that work by October, as the minister wants people to believe. I can even bet the Minister that the Wilkinson Road project would not be complete by October. He knows it himself, and it is widely believed that the proffered excuse was just meant to save time for another excuse. No one will doubt another excuse in November suggesting that the failure to complete the road in October was due to the rains. Interesting eh!

Another dubious undertaking by the Chinese people is the removal of the contract sign boards at a time when the contract expiration date was fast approaching. The sign boards indicating the contractor, project financier, start and completion dates et al, which were erected in Lumley and somewhere around Cockeril, mysteriously disappeared by the end of May 2011.

Unfortunately for them was the reality that everybody was already au fait with the fact that the road was to be completed by July 2011.

Is this why these Chinese people now refuse to indicate the start and completion dates on the Spur Road contract? Yes, the China Railway Seventh Group had already commenced work on the road starting from Lumley to Hill Cut junction, but the start and completion dates remain blank on the contract signboards. What a complete disrespect for the country’s procurement laws that demands explicit display of such details!

The least said about the professionalism of the work being undertaken by the Chinese company on the Wilkinson Road the better, because the work has already started deteriorating even before it is complete. Bottom line, I doubt the durability of the work being done at Wilkinson Road.

This latest false assurances and flimsy excuses by the Works Minister did not come as a surprise to some of us who have long detected the lies being spilled out for public consumption by government officials with regards the Wilkinson Road project. In summary, the Wilkinson Road project started with lies and irregularities and the continuation of such lies and irregularities must not surprise anyone.

By Abdul Karim Fonti Kabia

Friday 12 August 2011

Ernest Koroma Kicks Out Dennis Sandy...More to Follow

Dennis Sandy: End of the Road
President Ernest Bai Koroma has sacked the Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs (SWGCA), the News Hunters learnt this evening from State House sources.

The rationale behind the dismissal of the minister remains unclear, but there are speculations that the action could not be unconnected to the doomed relationship between the All People's Congress (APC) party and the People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) party.

Dennis Sandy was one of the PMDC members appointed by the APC to serve as minister following the 2007 election victory of the APC, which the PMDC greatly contributed to.

He was first appointed as Minister of Lands, Country Planning and the Environment, but was later shifted from that Ministry to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs in a December 2010 cabinet reshuffle.

The dismissal of Sandy on Friday has send shock waves to other PMDC members serving in various government positions.

it is envisaged that more sacking of PMDC members in government will take place in the coming weeks.

Dennis Sandy is known to be a major ally of Charles Margai, the PMDC Leader, and his dismissal did not come as a surprise to many, following recent outburst of Charles Margai against the APC. 
By Abdul Fonti  

Saturday 6 August 2011

Charles Margai’s Business in Politics is Over

Charles Margai
The Leader of the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), Charles Francis Margai is shamelessly holding on to his political career, despite the fact that he no longer has any business in politics. What a man that refuses to honorably take a bow from politics and pursue his legal profession?

During the height of the 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections, Charles Margai, who had teamed up with the All People’s Congress (APC) party, vowed to quit politics if the APC fails to positively turn the country around. Margai convinced the citizens, especially his PMDC supporters that the APC had all it takes to bring development to a deprived country like Sierra Leone. It is therefore an indisputable fact that Charles Margai and his PMDC party contributed significantly towards the 2007 victory of Ernest Bai Koroma’s led APC party.

Few years down the line, the same Charles Margai, who had vowed to end his political career (including his dream of one day becoming President of Sierra Leone) if the APC fails, is the same person that is now rating the APC government as the worst in the history of Sierra Leone.

I never believed it when I was first told some few months back that Charles Margai had made public somewhere that the APC has failed, until the just concluded delegates’ conference of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party.

It was stunning to hear Charles Margai announcing that the APC has failed woefully. He went further to say the APC is ranked zero percent as far as development is concerned.

After these assertions, I was expecting the PMDC leader to further make true his 2007 vow by announcing that he was quitting politics as a result of the failure of the APC. That would have placed his name in the annals of Sierra Leone as the most honest politician that ever lived in Sierra Leone. But he never did. Instead, he went further to make shameless comments that have now landed him in hot waters with his PMDC members. Rather than announcing his quit from politics, he spoke of the possibility of teaming up with the SLPP to chase the APC from power. I only pray Charles Margai must have been joking to assure of such possibility at a time like this when no serious-minded person takes him seriously. If he was really serious, then it justifies his dictatorial tendencies and dishonesty, because he now stands accused by his PMDC members that his utterances were unilateral and does not represent a PMDC position.

Charles Margai has nobody to blame for the present state of confusion he finds himself. I am pretty much sure that Margai must have regretted the day he staked his political career for the APC. The day he vowed to quit politics if the APC fails was the day Margai started his journey to the end of his presidential ambition. And his journey from serious politics ends the day he announced that APC has failed woefully.

In short, Charles Margai has knocked himself out of politics. He is therefore advised to do the honourable thing – quit politics and go to the court room – because his business in politics is over.   

By Abdul Fonti