Njala University administration and Kori Chiefdom have on Friday 6th November 2020 established a 15-man committee to develop a roadmap for sustainable peace between the university and the host communities of Mokonde and Mosongo. The committee was established on Friday 6th November 2020 at the end of a dialogue meeting between the two parties held at the compound of Paramount Chief Borbor Gbapie IV of Kori Chiefdom.
Kori Chiefdom authorities including the Chiefdom Speaker, Section and other Chiefs, and landowning families of Mosongo and Mokonde were in attendance. Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Njala Campus, Professor Bashiru Koroma, who has been leading efforts to bring peace to the host communities, appealed to the traditional authorities for calm and narrated the efforts by the Sierra Leone Police and the university administration to investigate the student disturbances.
He suggested the establishment of a Peace Consolidation Committee to develop a roadmap to harmoniously discuss the prevailing issues that had emanated from the Njala University student riot of Wednesday 28th October 2020. The idea for the establishment of the committee came into play after the community authorities insisted that university authorities must investigate the root causes of the student riots and bring the perpetrators to book.
The committee will soon commence work, and is expected to put together mechanisms to address the grievances of the two host communities. The Acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Osman Sankoh, assured the traditional authorities of Kori Chiefdom and the affected communities that his administration will fully support the process and restore the respect and confidence of the host communities.
Mosongo and Mokonde communities are providing accommodation and other basic facilities for over 60 percent of the over 4,000 students studying at Njala University, Njala Campus.
By Sulaiman Karim Sesay