July 8, 2019
By: Frederick V. Kanneh
PCMP, Ciril Forah Gondor II
In the midst of so many speculations by his critics in his chiefdom with regards recent happenings, the Paramount Chief Member of Parliament for the upper Bambara Chiefdom, Kailahun District, Ciril Forah Gondor II, has cleared the air and opened his door wild for questions pertaining development in his chiefdom.
Updating descendants of the Upper Bambara Chiefdom in their monthly meeting in Freetown about recent developments, PC Gondor disclosed that the Government of Sierra Leone in partnership with UNOPS has supplied Pendembu, the head quarter town of Upper Banbara Chiefdom with 277 poles and 33 boxes of cable for solar electrification of the township.
He added that, according to the representative of UNOPS, the installation of the solar electricity was going to be for the whole town, but that consumers were only going to pay a sum of one hundred and fifty thousand Leones (le150, 000) for the meter.
He said consumers would recharge the meter based on their appliances.
“This solar project is not for upper Bambara alone, it is a project that is to benefit nine chiefdoms in the Kailahun District, and our chiefdom is lucky to be among. The UNOPS representative has assured us that the installation would start shortly, so upon completion, I believe that the problems of electricity would be solved, “he said.
PC Gondoh informed the gathering that before then, there was no ambulance service in the Upper Bambara Chiefdom and that it was very difficult to transport patients with emergency cases to Kailahun or Kenema as the cases may be, but that through his hard work together with other stakeholders, the chiefdom was able to get two ambulances.
He said one of the ambulances was situated at the Pendembu Government Health Centre which had about ten staff -five nurses and five drivers- and it operated on a twenty-four hour basis while the other was at the Catholic Health Clinic.
He further stated that the whole Pendembu had no West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) centre before and that the school only had centre for the NVQ examination, but that through his frantic effort and others in the chiefdom, the Pendemu Vocational Secondary School (PVTSS) has got WASSCE centre.
He added that students would no longer have to travel to Daru or other towns to write their WASSCE He also noted that the PVTSS has also got a modernize science lab for students in the science stream.
He said the issue concerning the pledge made by the Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission, Francis Ben Keifala and the current Deputy Minister of Justice, Solomon Jamiru was never the way people purported it.
He said the duo pledged Le 50,000,000 for students from the Upper Bambara Chiefdom offering degree courses in various universities, but that they gave him only Le10, 000,000 which was not even enough to pay a whole year college fees for three students.
He said with consultation with other stakeholders in the chiefdom, there was unanimous agreement to open an account called “Education Trust Fund” where they deposited the ten million Leones.
“As for the central mosque, I am still praying that President Bio looks into our situation as chiefdom because I have already submitted the estimate as requested, but I am yet to get a word from him. Also, I want to use this opportunity to tell everyone in the chiefdom that I am always open to questions regarding the day- to-day affairs of the chiefdom. It is good to ask questions than to dwell on speculations,” he said.
He noted that, “Rome was not built in a day” so it was going to take time to develop the chiefdom, since the negative effect of the eleven years civil war was still telling on the chiefdom .