Residents of Tunkia chiefdom in the Kenema district have registered disappointment over the activities of their Paramount Chief PC Alhaji Amara Goway Sama V and they are calling for him to be thoroughly investigated by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
PC Alhaji Amara Goway Sama V is alleged to be collecting huge sums of money from a mining company that is bent on starting mining activities at Bagra hill in the reserved forest in the chiefdom and that he is persuading a group of young men in the chiefdom to disrupt the activities of the Gola forest programme.
A resident of the chiefdom Musa Taimeh blamed the Paramount chief for every thing that is going on wrong in the chiefdom. Another citizen Amara Gasimu a resident in Golahun Tunkia disclosed to the press that there is a serious disunity among members of the chiefdom as the chief is bent on supporting the mining company against the operations of the Gola Forest programme that have been operating in the chiefdom for years by protecting the Gola forest and undertaking various developmental programmes in all the seven Gola family chiefdoms in both South and East of the country. “This is not the first time PC Amara is doing this type of trick to the community. We want the ACC to investigate him immediately this time” Gasimu said, adding that the ugly practices of the chief started when the Sierra Leone Rubber Company began operations in the rubber estate in the Tunkia chiefdom.
He explained that it was agreed that the rubber company should provide various community projects, indeed they started embarking on some but unfortunately the Paramount chief intervened on their behalf, and instead him asking for the chiefdom, he asked the rubber company to construct a house for him rather than the community school. The chief is alleged to have also requested a Toyota Jeep from the rubber company instead of money for the development of the chiefdom.
After that incident he again allegedly invited another rubber company from Liberia to operate in the same estate and is also alleged to have asked them too to give him another Toyota Jeep which they did. The Paramount chief currently has two vehicles at the expense of the chiefdom Gasimu claimed. Another resident Pa Ansuma Konneh of Gegbema in the same chiefdom said there is need for the ACC to investigate the chief as these developments are not in the interest of peace and stability in the chiefdom. He disclosed that a lot of complaints have been made to the relevant authorities in Kenema but that no action has been taken against the chief up to now.
Efforts made to reach the paramount chief in person and on phone about the said allegations against him proved futile at the time of going to press.
By Saffa Moriba
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