By Ragan M. Conteh
Government officials, including visitors going to the country’s most accommodated Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Youyi Building, have expressed grave concern for what they referred to as the overwhelming darkness inside the lifts at the building.
Lift users have frowned at the Ministry of Works and Public Asset, headed by Peter Bayoku Conteh, responsible for the maintenance of the entire Youyi Building lifts. The lifts are all in battered state, which has threatened the security of the building.
“Chinese Lights are now used in one of the lifts while the first lift has been condemned for several years now. In fact, there is no intention of any state authority expressing willingness to maintain the lifts. Why are state functionaries giving a blind eye to the Youyi Building lifts? Disables usually pass through the lifts, but now they are handicapped. We cannot go up now,” Margret Samba said.
Every year, according to one Margret Samba, government disburses billions of leones to the Ministry of Works and Public Asset to rehabilitate Youyi Building, including the faulty lifts, but all these monies are nowhere to be found.
One of the ministers, in one of the floors, also expressed deep concern for the dark lifts, adding that Sierra Leone receives international visitors on a daily basis, and ‘they will surely laugh at us with this messy situation.’
The negligence of the Ministry of Works, to renovate the lifts at Youyi Building structure, has brought mixed feelings that question the competence of the minister, Peter Bayoku Conteh.
Some say the ministry is sabotaging the New Direction Government in failing to maintain the lifts of the building.