By Alie Badara in Bo
On Sunday, 21st, September 2025, the quietness of Nyagureahun Gateway nestled within Bargbor Chiefdom in Bo District was shattered by an audio message on the Descendants’ WhatsApp Group that suggests that a group persons in the chiefdom’s immediate vicinity have been recruited to abduct children from their chiefdom and called on residents to mount up vigilante groups to protect their villages. This unusual call to arms has put Bargbor Chiefdom on tenterhooks and a spree of panic.
The audio which has been widely circulated across the chiefdom via various WhatsApp platforms, particularly among residents Nyagureahun, Lugbu and Bargbor, warns of a pending raid on unsuspecting villages and localities in the chiefdom by the hired marauders and kidnappers.
The voice from the said audio purported to have come from an indigene called Gilo Johnny who is resident in the United States urges the locals to take to arms in defense of themselves and their families, asserting that he had the intelligence from a confirm source which he, Gilo, cannot dispute.
“Always be in readiness to protect your households!” Gilo Johnny’s voice blared in the audio, his tone laced with apparent urgency.
He claimed in the audio that his intelligence confirms to him that the alleged would-be perpetrators have already received payments for the abduction of children and advised families to secure their doors tightly at night and to raise alarm whenever they suspect any unusual movements within their localities, especially at night.
Sources have confirmed that the audio message was also sent directly Town Chief of Nyagureahhun Gateway not only to alert him, but to also highlight the names of those suspected to be behind the projected act as a way to preempt alertness and consolidate the people’s resolve to stand up to what is a common threat to their collective peace and survival as a people and a community.
Accordingly, the audio recording from Gilo Johnny is said to have mentioned the names of suspected collaborators to this planned heinous act that include one Councilor Kanneh, his relative Barbie Kanneh, and Jusu Muana-all residents of Nyagureahun Gateway.
They stand accused in the viral audio of collaborating with the horrifying kidnappings that have taken place in the area in the past.
Efforts to reach the people named in the audio for their reactions to the allegation have severally proved futile.
This allegation appears to have awakened previous traumas resulting from missing persons in the chiefdom and its surroundings, which the reason for the high tension current unraveling in the chiefdom.
Residents are now recalling a poignant case of disappearance of a five-year old boy some time ago during and end of Ramadan celebration event, who in spite of rigorous searches involving the Bo Regional Police, was never found dead or alive, and this according to findings, had shattered the disappeared boy’s family as both parents reportedly died months later when nothing about their disappeared child was formerly disclosed.
The disappeared boy’s father, the late Dauda Heimoh, was a respected teacher at the Sierra Leone Muslim Brotherhood Junior Secondary School in Nyagureahun Gateway.
“That boy’s disappearance broke us all,” one elderly man disclosed to this reporter, adding: “with this emergency information, our memories of that boy and his family have been refreshed in our minds.”
Nyagureahun has a sad history of the incidental occurrence of abductions and ritual murders as well as disappearances of people, old and young and this latest audio alert has just amplified the fear and a need for counter measures in the affected communities.
In a chiefdom where trust in local authorities is wavering, the allegations against prominent figures within the community as aiding and abetting such heinous act against their own very people has deepened acrimony between the named suspected collaborating persons and the rest of the community.
On Sunday, September 21, 2025 when contacted by this reporter, Paramount Chief Raymond Coker acknowledged haven received the audio from his sub chiefs and reports of the attendant high tension it has caused amongst residents of the chiefdom.
According to Paramount Chief Coker, the security concern expressed in the audio has been forwarded for the attention of the chiefdom Council of Chiefs for discussion and they are expected to sit on it at the Jimmy Court Barray.
Reports from the said meeting of the Council of Chiefs indicated that the matter was considered as “far above the mandate and capacity of the Chiefs’ Council to handle and have decided to escalate the matter further above as it hinges on State Security.
“This is beyond our mandate as traditional chiefs, and we therefore agreed to escalate the matter to the state security forces,” a Council Member, Chief Muctaru Coker informed. Chief Coker faced a sharp rebuttal at the meeting for suggesting that the incident can be associated with a family feud.