Appointed Mayor of Koidu
By Septimus Senessie in Kono
Local Government authorities in Kono have wasted no time to replace embattled Mayor Saa Emmerson Lamin just days after he was suspended on allegations of financial and administrative impropriety.
Yesterday, Councillor Aiah Bartholomew Komba of Ward 64 in Koidu was elected by his colleague councillors as Acting Mayor. He went unopposed.
Veronica Kumba Dauda of the same Ward - which is a multi-councillors ward - was also elected Acting Deputy Mayor. She replaces the substantive holder of the post, Sia Theresa Njenda, who was suspended alongside Lamina.
Lamina’s administration was virtually brought down last week by a presidential decision following a request by Minister of Local Government, Diana Konomanyi citing financial and administrative impropriety she said needed to be investigated. The mayor has denied the allegations, calling his removal a “political witch-hunt.”
Yesterday’s elections and ceremony were held at the Sahr Musa Sessie Gbenda Hall in Koidu amid heavy police presence in the vicinity of the hall.
The suspended mayor Lamina could not be reached for comment on the development, but his suspended deputy, Njenda, told Politico on telephone that she had no objection to the election of someone to replace her.
“I am currently under suspension and someone must act in my position as a Deputy Mayor until I am investigated. After the investigations, if I am found guilty, the person will remain in my position, but if I am exonerated, I will be reinstated,” she said.
Both the Acting Mayor and his deputy are members of the governing APC party.
Of the 16-member council, four are members of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party. Only one of them, Councillor Musa Fakaigboe of Ward 64, attended Wednesday’s program. In fact he nominated the Acting mayor.
The new Acting Mayor promised to work in the interest of the people of Koidu, to reunite them and bring development before the end of his term. He told the audience at the ceremony shortly after his election that one lesson he had learnt from his predecessor was not to have “disrespect for authorities within the [APC] party.”
Congratulating the new top council officials, Kono District Chairman of the APC, Francis Gbondo, said the problems of the district had come to an end with the suspension of the former mayor. He said this was the day they were yearning for.
Kai Moiba, Deputy Chairman of APC Youth League in Kono, remarked that the suspension of the mayor had been their long desire.
Moiba was one of three people alleged by the suspended mayor to have attacked him on 16 February while on a live radio programme.
“The suspended mayor had little or no respect for stakeholders within the APC and he only had belief in his education,” Moiba said.
PC Paul Gabba Saquee of Tankoro Chiefdom, who presided over the election process, said the suspension of Mayor Lamina would remain in force until investigations against him came to an end. He called for unity among the newly elected officials.
PC Sahr Fengai Korgbende Kaimachende of Gbense Chiefdom sounded a bit philosophical in his statement: “Possibility is the game of the possible, and if you want to stay in and within, you must align [yourself] with your leadership and with the authority that are in power. If you begin to challenge them, then this is where you fail to appreciate that politics is the game of the possible”.
The above remarks of the various officials left a civil society activist asking whether the true reason for suspending the mayor was impropriety as alleged, or internal party squabbles as remarked by them.
Acting Mayor Aiah Bartholomew Komba had served as a Deputy Mayor from 2008 to 2012, when he lost to Sia Theresa Njenda after the 2012 General Elections that brought the suspended Mayor to power. In 2011, he served as Acting Mayor, after his then boss, Sahr Musa Sessie Gbenda, had abandoned his office after he was dragged to court over a debt owed to the Rokel Bank.
(C) Politico 03/0316
