By Kemo Cham
A radio presenter in Koidu Town in
Sierra Leone’s eastern Kono District went into hiding last week in fear of
being arrested over allegation of incitement.
Sahr Amadu Komba, Station Manager of
the Eastern Radio in Koidu, said he was been pursued for a program he hosted
which discussed the cause of a flooding that left the small diamond-rich town
isolated and cut off from the main highway that linked it to the capital Freetown.
Heavy downpours last week left a new
bypass constructed as an alternative to the main route leading into the town
completely cut off due to the flooding. The bypass had been constructed after
the main route was made inaccessible due to a controversial mining project
sanctioned by the government.
People were stranded on both sides
of the makeshift road, and according to reports, several houses were affected
along the route.
These were the issues been discussed
on a breakfast radio talk show in the town hosted by Komba.
Apparently, the authorities were not
happy with the nature of the discussion.
According to the journalist, he went
into hiding after receiving warning that the Resident Minister East, the most
senior ranking government [political] official in the region, had ordered for
his arrest. He also alleged, according to reports, receiving threatening calls
from police and some unidentified members of the public.
Karamo Kabba, the Resident Minister,
referred Politico to an official statement released via his facebook account,
when contacted. In the statement he accused the journalist of inciting the
public.
The flooding provoked violent
protests by angry residents who blamed the mining around the Congo Bride. Kabba
is seen as the main supporter of that project. Comments attributed to him on
social media following the demonstrations have attracted widespread criticism.
He is alleged to have uttered abusive words against the protesters.
But the minister, in his lengthy
facebook post, said his comments were taken out of context. He accused his
“detractors” of concentrating on just a small portion of an hour’s long
interview with the state broadcaster SLBC in which he defended the
controversial mining project.
Kabba likened the broadcast by
Eastern Radio to inciting radio reports blamed for fanning the 1991 Rwandan
genocide.
He said the “alarmist radio host”
called on the “‘Kono people to rise and fight for their right’ with the
propensity to cause human and property casualties, as well as a ruin of the
city.”’
Politico could not reach Komba for
comments. But the General Manager of the network of radios to which his station
belongs, Ahmed Kallon, confirmed the imminent threat on the journalist.
Kallon told Politico that he’d
advised Komba to lay low after receiving a call from the minister complaining
about the alleged incitement. He said the minister complained that the
journalist was inciting public to come out and demonstrate against the
government.
Kallon said the minister also told
him that the Local Unit Commander of the Sierra Leone Police in the district
had alerted him about the broadcast. He said he was concerned because the
minister told him he was traveling to Koidu with two truckloads of police to
investigate the matter.
Kallon said “a key stakeholder” in
Koidu later called him to confirm that the Minister had indeed ordered the
arrest of the journalist.
Kallon said on enquiring, he learned
that the journalist had only urged the town’s people to refrain from “conniving
with foreigners” who sought to destroy their land and to “wake up from your
slumber” and protect it.
“Maybe that one could be
misinterpreted as saying come out in your number and demonstrate,” Kallon told
Politico on a telephone interview.
“I am not the kind of manager who
actually condones unprofessionalism, especially one that incites the people
into causing anarchy in the country,” he said.
According to him, the Assistant
Inspector General of Police East, Karow Kamara, has assured him that he would
investigate without prejudice.
Momoh Gbonko Bangura, Executive
Secretary of the Kono-based Civil Society network, condemned the alleged arrest
order on the journalist. Bangura was one of several listeners who called in
during the program to make verbal contributions. He told Politico that he didn’t
hear anything that should have warranted any query of the journalist and that
if there was any reason to do so, he felt they should have gone to the IMC.
“The people have the rights to
express their views on the mining activities because it is their constitutional
rights,” he said on a telephone interview.
© Politico 02/08/16
No comments:
Post a Comment