By Ragan M. Conteh
Paramount Chief Alimamy Bockarie Yellan Koroma III of Dansogoia Chiefdom, Bumbuna Town in Tonkolili District has been accused by stakeholders to have confessed for the deaths of many people in the Chiefdom.
Speaking to this press in Bumbuna town, the former Chiefdom Speaker, Kelfala Daoh said he was sacked by PC Koroma without any warning or consultation with either chiefdom stakeholders, Ministry of Local Government or the District Officer.
“The Paramount Chief sacked me because I name him as having knowledge for the traditional scarifies or ceremonies that led to the killing of one of the young man in Bumbuna,” the Chiefdom Speaker alleged. The Paramount Chief, he went on, did not want me to name him in the sacrifice that led to the death.
“I even gave him Le4, 000,000 (Four Million Leones) to secure a cow for the ceremony,” the Speaker further alleged.
Mr Daoh went on to state that the PC is yet to reinstate him despite several interventions by the Resident Minister, Abu Abu Koroma and the Youth Minister, Mohamed Orman Bangura. The sacked Chiefdom Speaker also accused PC Koroma of derogatory utterances against SLPP ministers saying that most of them passed through him educationally and that anyone who reports him to this government do so at his detriment.
The Speaker, Kelfala pointed out that he could not even go to Paramount Chief’s house at the moment because his life is presently at stake.
“I fear for my life because the Paramount Chief perceived me as his main target, he hunts me most often and he sets heavy fire between me and my people at Kaikoro Village where I was born,” the Speaker further alleged.
Allegations similar to that of the Chiefdom Speaker were also made by the former Deputy, Joe Cole Youth Leader who was also sacked by PC Koroma. The former Deputy Youth Leader is a strong supporter of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party.
“I was sacked by the Paramount Chief because I am an SLPP supporter and I am not in conformity with the PC’s actions to disenfranchise SLPP Supporters in the Chiefdom,” the former Deputy Youth Leader alleged.
Dansogoia Chiefdom, Cole says, is now under bondage with many terrible happenings supported by the Paramount Chief.
He further accused the PC to have held a meeting of Section Chiefs, Town Chiefs and other important personalities in his residence where he made several death threats if people failed to dance to his tune.
At the Court barray, Cole went on, the Paramount Chief also openly threatened that anyone who did not succumb to his ways or try to sabotage him will not live long.
Strengthening his threats, the names of Brima Koroma, Salam Deen, David Turay, David Hitler and Hon. Taworo, according to Cole, were mentioned by the Paramount Chief as those who died for sabotaging his administration.
The rituals, Cole said, in which the Paramount Chief’s name was mentioned were offered for mining to resume in his Chiefdom. As per agreement, John Cole continued, sub-chiefs were tasked to contribute to the sacrifice adding that the Speaker gave Le4M to the Paramount Chief to buy cow to fulfill the ceremony at the Waterfall.
He said during the ceremony at the waterfall, one of the youths in the Chiefdom was beaten to death and bodily parts removed and thrown to the stream.
Cole explained that after two days the family of the deceased reported the matter to the Paramount Chief and other stakeholders that their son went along with the Chiefs to undertake scarifies and he was nowhere to be seen.
When the family went to the police, Cole went on, most of the chiefs who were at the scene including the Paramount Chief and taken to Magburaka and later to Freetown.
He said the deceased was later discovered inside the waterfall stream with most of his parts mutilated. Cole who was very emotional lamented at his colleague’s death by shedding tears saying that all those chiefs arrested have been released.
“What beat my imagination of these stakeholders is that, after these incidents, the Paramount Chief, PC Bockarie Yellan Koroma III is currently acting on his people like a loose cannon,” he alleged.
While lamenting the death of his colleague, Cole revealed that Africa Mineral Limited bought forty 40 containers of Tar to pave Bumbuna towns as part of their corporate social responsibility.
He said spear railway track and many other items left by the company had been sold by the Paramount Chief to Gento Group of Company and squandered the funds.
Cole also accused the Paramount Chief of inciting chaos between the sacked Speaker and his people to put the former Speaker’s House in a miserable state. Cole further made several allegations against PC Koroma of failing to utilize the surface rents paid by AML and Shandong Iron Ore miners for the development of the Chiefdom but for his personal purposes.
The SLPP Member of Parliament, from Tonkolili District Hon. Musa Bendugu is also equally accused of connivance with the Paramount chief to do illegal activities in the Chiefdom thereby impoverishing.
Speaking to PC Koroma regarding allegations made against him, he refereed to all allegations as false. The Paramount Chief however admits that the Chiefdom undertakes traditional scarifies ceremony every year to ensure that the ancestors bless the chiefdom with farming, mining and long life.
The Paramount Chief further stated that at the time of the traditional scarifies, the Speaker, Kelfala Daoh requested to ensure that the people contribute so that a cow could be bought for the ceremony.
“I personally offer the cow to the Speaker not knowing that he has intention to organise a traditional society called ‘Orkorlon,’” Chief Koroma told nightwatch.
The Paramount Chief said he did not go there, but he was angry when he learned that the Speaker and other Chiefs organised a secret society.
It was the following morning according to the Chief, a Family of the late man who was killed in the ceremony went to him and reported that, their son went for the ceremony yesterday and was nowhere to be found.
He further explained that his sub-chiefs could not show the whereabouts of the young man who was with them at the ceremony. PC Koroma said the chiefs’ story was that the deceased was caught taking photos during the ceremony which is a taboo for them and in the process of trying to chase him, he crossed the river.
The Chief later discovered that the man was killed during the ceremony and when the matter reported to the police they arrested him and Speaker.
He said all this was machinated by the Minister of Youths, Resident Minister and the District Officer just top tarnish his character.
The Chief however accepted that he was campaigning for the APC Honorable Member of Parliament seat, Hon. Rose Marie.
“Rose Marie is a friend to his family and she is the only candidate he ever campaigned for as a result of the intimacy between them,” he said
Regarding the killing allegations, PC Koroma responded that he did say anyone that fight him will not or never live long.
The Paramount Chief also accepted the allegation of making reference to all those who died based on the actions of the former Speaker and other people who are trying to blackmail him for what he did not do.
The chief also says in as much as the Speaker is not working in his best interest, he will never reinstate him as Speaker adding that the decision to sack his Speaker after the killing incident at the Bumbuna Waterfall is a decision that the Chiefdom Council took and not him alone.
“Nobody will like to take his enemy closer, you cannot recruit your enemy. He will sabotage your administration,” he said.
The Chief denied the allegation of selling the tar left by AML but accepted that there was a tar which has been wasted.
He explained how those accusing him now to have been working tirelessly to undermine his administration.
He pointed out all these happenings in his Chiefdom are as a result of the aid of the two Ministers.
To be Continued next edition.