The investigation into the alleged physical abuse of children of the Children’s Forum Network (CFN) at Commission 65 revealed last week during the testimony of Mohamed Barrie that he was influenced by his Uncle and former Minister Sylvia Olayinka Blyden to write an apology. During examination in chief of the witness by State Counsel Robert B. Kowa, Barrie recalled he wrote an apology and resignation letter dated 16 September 2017 (marked exhibit (MSW) DG). When asked under what circumstances the letter was written, Barrie replied that it was written under the circumstance that the former minister used her veto power to order his arrest at an ongoing CFN meeting at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and children’s Affairs (MSWGCA) after ten months of “fighting on social media and attacking each others personality.” On Monday 16th September, 2019, Amadu Barrie, Uncle of Mohamed took the stand and testified that the apology letter was dictated with the assistance of Blyden Mohamed wrote the letter, when asked by Lawyer Kowa as to who dictated how the document is to be written.
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He was then asked if he was the one that took the decision to prevent Mohamed from using the social media and he replied that they stopped him from using the social media for a while. A document which is an exhibit before the Commission marked (MSW)AM stated that it was Amadu and the family that persuaded Mohamed without looking for right but for peace with Blyden. Amadu replied that it is true that he persuaded Mohamed as his Uncle to obey the request from his family to establish a working relationship without looking for rights with an old woman, old enough to be his grandmother and who he happens to call Mommy Blyden. Lawyer Kowa then put to him that when he arrived at the residence of the then Minister he wanted to punish Mohamed and Amadu said that it is correct as it was part of the disciplinary actions he wanted to take against his child to flog him in front of Blyden. Instead of him flogging him Lawyer Kowa asked what then happened, the witness recalled that they concluded that he should apologise and resign from the CFN without flogging. “Who came up with that suggestion” Lawyer Kowa asked and he replied that he asked Blyden that whatsoever she wants in order to restore peace must be done and part of the things they agreed to do was to write an apology and resignation letter. The witness was then shown a document which he identified as the letter of apology and resignation written by Mohamed Barrie that was marked as exhibit (MSW) AF. “From your observation was the letter written out of the free will of Mohamed” Lawyer Kowa quizzed. Amadu said that after several complaints and a lot of rumours that there is a misunderstanding between Mohamed and Blyden, his family asked him to see what he can do to restore peace between the two. “Initially it was a misunderstanding between CFN and the Minister, when we saw that there is a deviation in the misunderstanding, instead of CFN and the Minister there has been a deviation which resulted in Mohamed having a misunderstanding with Blyden” he explained. “Thereafter we the family decided to intervene, we did this to allow our boy grow and walk freely in the streets without any negative emotion, so we persuaded him to obey whatever is necessary to achieve that goal to keep the peace” he said.
By Zainab Iyamide Joaque
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