Deputy Minister Local Government, Raymond Kabia has denied allegations that he supported the former All Peoples Congress (APC) chairperson of constituency 58, Masimera Chiefdom- Osman Kargbo, who contested as an independent candidate.
He said, “I have never imposed any member for the local government elections on the citizens of Masimera Chiefdom,” while addressing journalists recently at Youyi building, Brookfields in Freetown.
The Minister explained that the reason for Mr Kargbo’s resignation and contesting as an independent candidate at the local government election was stated in his resignation letter, adding that “Mr Kamara in fact categorically stated it in his letter the relentless effort I made for him [Mr Kamara] not to go independent.”
Mr Kabia issued Osman Kargbo’s resignation which reads: “I wish to resign from my position as constituency chairman of the APC in Masimera Chiefdom (58) effective immediately.”
“The main reason for taking this decision is that I have decided to run as an independent candidate in the forth coming district council elections…since the leader of the party, H.E Bai Koroma has categorically stated that there are no independents in the APC party, it is therefore prudent for me to resign from my position immediately,” the letter stated.
The letter continued, “I see a great danger ahead of us and for the party if we allow the Hon Jacob I Koroma to prevail in his decision not to allow any other citizens of this chiefdom to have an input in the symbol award for the three local council wards in the chiefdom. I strongly believe the party has made a serious mistake in giving this mandate to the MP’s we must therefore allow a method of proper checks and balances to prevent the making of uncompromising dictators and possible alliances that could defraud the council and the Chiefdom millions of Leones during the next four years,” the letter underscored.
The letter went on, “if the Hon. Jacob Koroma has his younger brother Sheku Deen Koroma as councilor replacing me [Osman Kargbo] his private secretary Ibrahim Conteh replacing Ben Sesay and his radicallo gang member, Aminu Sesay as councilor for lower Masimera, he will have a total monopoly and control of the resources and assets of this chiefdom. Anything he says to these councilors they will do and this will be a disaster and we cannot allow it,” highlighted the letter.
The letter went on “someone needs to stand up and tell the APC party that we voted for it t come to power and we voted for Jacob to go to parliament but that does not mean that we are going to sell our birthright in support of the party. The APC party has continuously refused to listen to the people of Masimera. We are going to have to take a stand at some point to let the party listen to us and not take us for granted,” the letter stated.
By Ophaniel Gooding
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