After the Bo fracas two Wednesdays ago after the President’s portrait was defaced with a green paint, yesterday the picture of the President was painted orange.
Awoko spoke to two MPs from Bo representing the minority Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) Hon Eric Jumu and the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) Hon Legacy K. Sankoh.
Hon Eric Jumu, who is the chairman for the Bo District parliamentary caucus, blamed the resident minister South Musa Tarawali for all the disturbances in the township, whilst Hon Legacy K.Sankoh, deputy minority leader of the PMDC, accused the SLPP for the Bo disturbances.
Mr Jumu said when he heard about the disturbances in Bo, he brought it to the notice of his colleagues who were not happy about the incidences. “What I heard was that the picture of the President this time is painted orange and our question is when the portrait of the President was painted green the SLPP office was vandalized and looted and now that his picture is painted orange, what is the reaction”, he asked
Mr Jumu explained that “we are not happy with what has been transpiring after the elections for which we have brought it to the notice of the President and we are even working in parliament with government in supporting peace and development and to discourage violence.”
He said despite these efforts “to some of us it is getting too much and I personally have not seen much done in curtailing these issues.”
The Bo MP blamed the resident minister South for having a hand in all of the troubles in Bo and also questioned the police’s neutrality in dealing with some of the incidences as he put it “they do not act in preventing issues.”
Speaking further of the resident minister he said, “I will say it frankly that the chiefs and most of the people of Bo have lost confidence in the resident minister. When the President was in Bo, the chiefs complained about the attitude of the minister.”
He also accused the minister of engaging himself with galvanizing youth groups and encouraging task force groups to create havoc.
The PMDC MP from Bo, Hon Legacy K Sankoh, accused the SLPP supporters of trying to create chaos in Bo. “They are doing it because they want to create problem in Bo and also between the PMDC and the APC but it will not work. To face reality the photo of the President has nothing to do with anybody .Why should anybody do things overnight just to create chaos,” he asked.
Despite politics, the MP went on, strategies should be mapped out in cracking down on these troublemakers who did not want peace in Bo.
He exonerated the minister of any hands in the disturbances but said, “we have detractors who do not want peace at all.”
Hon. Sankoh advised that the time for politicking was over and people should be thinking about development in their various constituencies and the country as a whole
By Ishmael Bayoh