By Ibrahim Alieu Kanu
A mother of two kids, Mrs Fatmata Bangura, on Friday, 3rd September 2019, fled her village, Mateboi, in the Karene District, Northern Sierra Leone to Freetown for threats of traditional woman who are members of her family wanting to initiate her daughter Fatima Musa Bangura into the Bondo society against her own wish.
Speaking to this writer, Mrs Fatmata Bangura averred that she fled the capital Freetown to Mateboi village because of serious political violence and intimidation during a rerun election conducted on the 24th August 2019 in constituency 110 in Western part of the capital Freetown where she resides with her husband Mr Musa Bangura, a business man.
Mrs Bangura furthered that, her family became target of political violence and intimidation since after the 2018 presidential election that ushered in the current President, Julius Maada Bio. She furthered that her husband is a business man and he doing business with officials of the erstwhile administration of former President Ernest Bai Koroma, so supporters of the current administration identified her husband as a threat in their community where there are many residents of Southern origin supporting the current government and her husband hailed from the North which is the stronghold of the opposition All People’s Congress party (APC)
She continued that, during the August 24th rerun election, a group of thugs including a notorious one call “Arata” attacked their house asking for her husband who was not around at that time. The thugs threatened to exterminate their entire family before the 2023 presidential election.
Mrs Bangura, in tears told this writer that, she had to fled to her village in Karene District for safety but unfortunately her family members demanded her daughter, Fatima Musa Bangura to be initiated to the Bondo society as tradition demands and they vowed to explore all possible avenues to initiate her hence she continue to live in Sierra Leone with the young girl. Mrs Bangura stated that, she refused to give them her daughter because she don’t want her daughter to experience what she went through in the hands of those society women called “Soweis” .
Mrs Fatmata Bangura reiterated that she fled the village at midnight because the chances of the bondo society heads conscripting her daughter were glaring and she is strongly against the devilish act of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as it has serious health hazards that had led to the death of many young girls and some left with lasting complications in her village and its environs.
She stated that she returned to the capital and settled at Calaba town, a renowned community in the East end part of the capital Freetown because the members of the bondo society in her village pursued her. On hearing that her husband had return to their housed as the political turmoil had been significantly coiled down, Bondo society members in Freetown who were in constant communication with those in her village went to their house and severely beat her husband for failing to produce his daughter and her husband is currently on the run for his life
She concluded that her only alternative to save her daughter from the barbaric hands of the bondo people who are mostly her own family members is to flee the country to another safer environment to protect her daughter from the hands of Bondo people
The Nightwatch newspaper will continue unearthing stories of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and political violence across the country.