By Septimus Senessie in Kono
Residents of Koidu Town in the eastern district of Kono have accused Fatorma Konomanyie, father of the current Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Finda Diana Konomanyie, of carrying out illegal mining activities which they say are life-threatening.
Mr Konomanyie, a former Town Council Clerk (Mayor), was accused of carrying out the activities in Soso Town, a community at Gandi Fania Street in Gbense Chiefdom. Some locals called the act as “lawlessness.”
Komba Sandi is a resident of the government hospital quarter which is just a few metres from the alleged mining site. He told Politico that government had banned the act of town mining and said that seeing an authority figure acting contrary to that “is a demonstration of lawlessness and disrespect for the laid-down policies of the land.” Sandi accused the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources for not doing enough to put a stop to town mining in Koidu.
Every year, Sandi said, Pa Konomanyie, as the former public clerk is commonly called, would engage in similar mining activities in the centre of the town without being questioned by the mines ministry. According to Sandi, it was the ministry which was even encouraging Pa Konomanyie to expand his illegal activities every year.
When the residents engaged the old man last year on the negative impacts of his alleged illegal activities, the former public servant told the residents that he was not mining but constructing fishing pond.
“But this year, he has brought a diamond washing plant to his mining site. This is being used to wash the extracted gravel. He has also brought in more man power,” Sandi explained.
He described the open mining pit as a “death trap” for children in that community and those around it. He also called it “a breeding ground for mosquitoes.”
Sahr Tennehkoe Sondayama, the Director of the Friends of the Environment, a local civil society group in Kono District, said he was aware of the “illegal town mining activities” of Pa Konomanyie in centre of Koidu Town. “I am highly disappointed in him, considering especially the amount of respect we had for him as one of the architects of this town,” he lamented.
Sondayama accused the octogenerian of destroying the legacies he had worked for back in the 1990s when he worked in the city clerk office. “He is like a crocodile which makes beautiful lines with its claws and destroys them again with its tails,” the civil society leader said.
Responding to the allegations, Pa Konomanyie told Politico that he had not and was not involved in any mining activity. He said that he was merely removing garbage from under the ground and that the pits would be filled later with ball stones for construction purposes.
Asked why the extracted gravel was being washed in the diamond washing plant, the local minister’s father told Politico he was not doing that with the washing plant but said he and his workmen were using the plant to extract sand which he would later use for the construction of a proposed house on the alleged mining site.
Mines Superintendent at the mines ministry, in Kono District, John Senessie Sheriff, denied having knowledge of any illegal mining in Koidu, but condemned all forms of town mining irrespective of who did it. He said it was against the laws of the land. Sheriff assured that he would dispatch officials to investigate and put a stop to any such activity.
© Politico 14/04/15
