By Hajaratu Kalokoh
Investigations by William Annan Atuguba Commission have shown that Former President Ernest Bai Koroma compensated former Minister of Government Alhaji Ibrahim Kemoh Sesay with a state land during his regime.
The state land in question belongs to the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS) and it was meant for nursery purposes.
Dr Kemoh Sesay had built a house at the current location of the Limkokwing University. His house was demolished for the construction of the university. Even though the land on which he originally built his house belonged to the Ministry of Education, but the government then moved on to compensate him with another acre of land in the same community.
Dr William Lewis Farmer, who was the Director of Survey and Land in the then Ministry of Lands explained in his testimony that he was aware that the MAFFS have a land for nursery purpose in Freetown located at Regent Road, Hill Station.
“I was personally instructed by Musa Tarawally the then minister in the Minister of Lands at that time that the said piece of land; he has received instruction from the then president to give that particular land to Honorable Alhaji IB Kemoh Sesay in the presence of the then minister of MAFFS, Dr Sam Sesay.”
According to Farmer they had a lot of challenge because in his mind as a director he did not deem it prudent to grant the land as directed because there was no justification by law as far as I am concern.
“It is not necessary because Kemoh had earlier built a house on the land which belongs to ministry of education. The president order for the house to be demolished because the said land was meant for educational purpose; the house was demolished and that was where they built Limkokwing.”
Farmer said him and Musa Tarawally were pressurized to process the document for the site under discussion.
According to testimonies in the commission, Kemo Sesay decided to sell the one acre land in 2014 for US$75,000.
The land was later bought by Hilal Touffic Kange, a businessman dealing in building materials. Kange was invited to take the stands on Monday where he said, “I purchased that land from Kemoh Sesay through Lawyer Abu Bakar Turay acting as a state agent for 75,000 US dollars in 2014.”
He added that initially he was reluctant to buy the land because there were occupants. But the then former Minister convinced him that the occupants will be cleared out in two weeks, which eventually led him to invest in buying the property.
The matter has been adjourned for Wednesday, 10th July 2019.
© 2019 Politico Online
