…urges residents to vote APC out!
November 6, 2017 By Mohamed Massaquoi from Mongor
Dusty and rugged: 170 miles route to the new district headquarter town of Mongor
A four-wheel drive vehicle gets stuck in the mud few metres away from Kabala
The presidential candidate for the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) has accused the Ernest Bai Koroma lead administration of willful failure to address the needs of citizens living in Koinadugu district thus reducing them to abject poverty and malnutrition especially among children.
Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio said the Agendas for Change and Prosperity – development blueprints for the president spanning ten years – do not reflect on the living standard of the residents of the northern district, adding that voters in Koinadugu have no business voting the ruling All Peoples Congress because of the current status of their district.
Koinadugu District is in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. It is by far the largest District in Sierra Leone in geographical area but it is largely backward as a result of years of neglect by successive regimes.
Mr. Bio described as unfortunate the fact that the current government has not seriously paid heed to the plight of the people in that part of the country despite having embarked on a redistricting exercise, noting that it is very difficult to access the district headquarters, Falaba, where poverty is visible among residents.
He bemoaned that fact that although government has spent a lot of state resources on road construction, yet the road network within Koinadugu district is extremely deplorable, depriving local farmers the opportunity to take their products to the nearest business centre.
“The APC has lied to you and I want you this time to try the SLPP. Our government will be quite different because we will not spend money unnecessarily as it is visible under this administration. Since independence, we have got the worst educational standard under this APC administration. I will ensure that we improve on the standard of education in this country and every Sierra Leonean child will have access to free and quality education,” said the SLPP standard bearer.
He added: “I have traveled the entire district and I have found out that healthcare services within the district are extremely poor. I will deliver quality healthcare for the people of this country.”
Bio reminded residents of Koinadugu how the current government lied to them that they would construct with a youth village in the district, but which never happened.
“The APC told you that they will construct the road from Kabala to Krubola up till Mongor town. Now look around, they have only stopped the road work at Cow Yard. They promised that they will give the presidential candidacy to your brother, Keifala Marrah, at the end of it he was not even nominated. APC must go. This is a bad government for you,” he told residents.
The town chief of Mofindugu Village, Chief Dinky Mansaraym, said they work over twenty miles from the village to Mongor just to access medical facility and that government officials seldom visit their community.
“We walk and the roads and not good. We pay Le 150,000 per person on a motorbike from Kabala to here [Mofindugu]. We do not have secondary school in the entire community so we send our children to Mongor to attend,” he said and added that they are disappointed with the way government distributes state resources.
“We feel abandoned. I want government to pay attention to Koinaduge district. We want to be part of the democratic dispensation of the country. There are times during the raining season when some roads are completely blocked or cut-off by the rain, thereby preventing any form of movement or exchange between the affected community and its immediate environs,” he concluded.