By Ragan M. Conteh
Former All People’s Congress (APC) Member of Parliament for Constituency 073, Hon. Abu Bakarr SAT Koroma has on Friday 4th December 2020 handed over a court barry worth over Le150 million to the people of Mathombo Village, Koya Chiefdom, Port Loko District.
Handing over the barry to newly appointed Regent Chief of Koya Chiefdom, former Hon. Abu Bakarr SAT Koroma said he decided to construct the barry for the chiefdom based on peoples’ request.
He informed that when he was campaigning years back to become MP for the constituency, his people pleaded with him to construct a barry for them.
Accordingly, it was against this backdrop and the kind of constraints his people had been going through over the years holding court sittings under mango trees and sometimes in people’s residences that he decided to do the needful.
The court barry, he said, has four toilets for male and female detainees and court officials with dozens of long benches, an office space each for the court clerk and court chairman, and a sizable dock.
Receiving the barry on behalf of his subjects, the newly appointed Regent Chief for Koya Chiefdom, Chief Saidu Mohamed Conteh expressed happiness and described the ceremony as historic for the people of Koya.
Chief Conteh who gave a brief history of how the construction of the barry came about in the village, said since 1957 when the community was designated to have a barry by eminent people of the chiefdom, “there has not been a single structure for hearing of cases.”
He thanked the former APC MP for fulfilling his campaign promises to the people, who he called on to be law abiding and to sometimes settle minor disputes at the family level.
The chief admonished the court officials including the chairman and clerk not to levy heavy fines on his subjects; and should the court chairman do that, he will risk facing severe punishment.
Other speakers also made statements during the ceremony, including the chiefdom admin clerk who thanked Hon. Koroma for constructing the barry.
He admonished the people that the court is not there to make money, as the chiefdom has many areas for generating revenue.
Hon. Koroma’s legacies cannot only be conspicuously seen in Mathombo village, but also in Masiaka where he constructed toilet facilities and other monumental structures for the community.
Chiefdom people gathered in their hundreds to grace the historic ceremony amid showers of praises for the former MP.
The ceremony was climaxed with the formal cutting of the tape by the newly appointed Regent Chief amid pump and pageantry.