By Mohamed Massaquoi
Pujehun District Descendant Association, PDDA, through the district health management team, has donated money and food items for Ebola suspected cases and people in quarantined homes in the district.
PDDA National Chairman, Patrick Ansu "Carburetor" Kaikai said the items cost Le 36 million which money he said had come from executive members of the association and other indigenes of the district.
He said they had received no support from the government to be able to make the donation but that they would work with the management medical team in Pujehun to fight the disease and save the lives of the people. He encouraged political leaders of the district and all other residents to support the fight against Ebola in the Pujehun.
Kaikai said his organisation would support Pujehun district college students as well as the district’s youth council to join in the sensitisation drive, noting that they had asked each Member of Parliament from the district to pay Le 2 million from the money given to them by the government to fight Ebola.
He said two of the MPs - Dickson Momoh Rogers of Constituency 89 and Ansu Kaikai of Constituency 87 - had already paid up.
During the presentation ceremony, Minister of Social Welfare, Moijueh Kaikai said “the Pujehun district council is not being accountable and transparent with the people of the district regarding monies that have been disbursed to them by the central government to fight Ebola”. He warned that “anybody who tries to undermine the Ebola fight in terms of those monies that are being sent in by the government will be prosecuted by the Anti-Corruption Commission”.
The minister claimed that “all Paramount Chiefs in parliament have been given the same amount of money given to MPs to be distributed among their colleagues.
Therefore each Paramount Chief in Pujehun district is entitled to Le 5 million from their representative”.
District Council Chairman, Sadiq Sillah dismissed the allegations accusing the minister of being "out of touch". He said his council had not received any money from the central government specifically for Ebola response.
Sillah said they were instructed to use money for Decentralisation Services Programme for Health to respond to the Ebola outbreak which he said they did.
"We responded adequately by embarking on a ward-by-ward sensitisation programme" he said, which "yielded tremendous dividend as is evident in the relatively low Ebola cases in the district despite being on the border with Liberia".
Paramount Chief Member of Parliament, Brima Victor Sidie Kebbie also dismissed the allegation of the minister, referring to it as "unfortunate".
He said it was not true that he received money to distribute to his colleague Paramount Chiefs but rather to hold sensitisation programmes throughout the district which he said he did.
PC Kebbie said he invited all his colleagues in the district and organised a "fruitful meeting in my chiefdom where we discussed Ebola and by-laws relating to the disease". He said the minister's comment was nothing short of inciting other chiefs against hum.
The district medical officer, Dr. David Bome commended the association for their support, noting that all stakeholders in the district, including the security personnel, had been instrumental in the fight against the dreadful disease.
He said so far the district had had seven confirmed cases of Ebola, two of which had come from outside the district. He said more attention should be paid to Makpele and Sorogbeima chiefdoms.
The donated food items included 200 25-kilogramme bags of rice, 20 bags of onion, 10 cartons of tomato, 24 gallons of vegetable oil, 60 gallons of palm oil, 20 bags of salt and four cartons of magi.
(C) Politico 02/09/14
