Minister frowns at chiefs in Kono By Septimus Senessie in Kono Local Government Minister has said that she is “highly displeased and unhappy” with the fourteen paramount chiefs in the Kono district, south of Sierra Leone. Finda Diana Konomayi-Kabbah was responding to grim reports on the Ebola situation in the district while addressing ten of the fourteen Paramount Chiefs in the district at a meeting she organised in Koidu town on the eve of the last visit by President Ernest Bai Koroma and his vice, Sam Sumana. Sounding testy the minister, who administers government oversight in the offices of local authorities, including chiefs, in the country, lamented: “I am not happy with my paramount chiefs because of the present alarming rate of new Ebola cases in my district after all the financial and other supports government has given to you to enforce the bye-laws and stop the chain of the transmission”. She threatened that, “I will not hesitate to set a precedent on anyone of you for failing to do what is expected of you as chiefs and save the lives of your people from Ebola.” The minister praised Paramount Chiefs of Bo district, in the south, for presenting to her a “fantastic report” on the Ebola situation in that part of the country. She said they had put in place robust measures to stem the spread of the virus in their district, adding that it was galling to hear that her own paramount chiefs were still complaining of their subjects “touching dead bodies before calling the 117 Ebola hotline in gross violation of bye-laws they formulated, only means that the chiefs are not doing enough in the Ebola fight and this is disappointing.” Madam Konomayi-Kabbah ordered the chiefs to go back to their chiefdoms and stay with their people until the end of Ebola. “All Paramount Chiefs should be in their various chiefdoms and must also sign their chiefdom time books every morning until the Ebola virus is eradicated totally out of the country,” she instructed. Updating President Koroma and his entourage on behalf of his colleague chiefs at the conference hall of the Diamond Lodge on the Ebola situation in Kono district a day after the minister she addressed them, PC Aiah Fasuluku Sonsiama III of Sandor Chiefdom, said the Ebola virus had hit 9 out of the 14 chiefdoms in Kono with Gbense recording the highest, 88 positive cases as at January 16 this year. He said they had not been able to fully enforce bye-laws because of fear of “violating the human rights of their subjects”, adding that their people were very much conscious of their rights than their responsibilities. Meanwhile, the president dismissed the claim of the chiefs and blamed them for not enforcing the bye-laws to the fullest, adding that as a responsible government they had the constitutional rights to protect the lives and dignities of Sierra Leoneans. He insisted that: “in the course of that we will not condone any form of lawlessness to the extent that will put at stake the lives of the majority of people in the country.” He said when he first visited the district almost two months ago, there were only 69 Ebola cases and the Paramount Chiefs and political heads of the district had promised him that they would reduce the number of infections to zero. He added that: “it is surprising to me that Kono District is now an Ebola hotspot in the country”, and described the development as “total disappointment on the part of the paramount chiefs”. Mr. Koroma strongly cautioned the people of Kono to “focus attention on the eradication of Ebola out of the country and forget about their camps and political gains in the Ebola fights”. He said he would take “no more excuses” and promised to take necessary actions against all political authorities who presided over increased in number of new infections. The president assured of his support the district of security to man border entry points with neighbouring countries. © Politico 21/01/15
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 18:53:18 +0000
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