A conference aimed at ending communal squabbles and uniting the people of Pujehun district took place at the weekend in the district headquarter bringing together hundreds of people including Paramount Chiefs and political parties in the district.
Addressing the people, one of the conveners – the Deputy Minister of Transport and Aviation, Sadiq Sillah – said that after more than a dozen planning meetings over the last five months in Freetown, he was pleased to see the people of the district turn out in such large numbers “because of your commitment to the restoration of peace throughout the district and the promotion of inclusive development.”
Sillah said the meeting was in line with the call by President Julius Maada Bio for peaceful co-existence among all the people of Sierra Leone regardless of their tribe or political affiliation.
In his keynote address, Minister of Information and Communication, Mohamed Rahman Swaray said the challenges facing a district that was doing badly in education and witnessing an explosion in teenage pregnancy could not be solved if the people did not work with a common purpose. He said President Bio remained committed to the improvement of the wellbeing of all Sierra Leoneans and called on the people of Pujehun to take full advantage of that effort by standing together at all times.
He said the recent Bintumani III conference and the decision to establish a permanent Peace and National Cohesion Commission represented a monumental step by President Bio to bring all Sierra Leoneans together by creating an early warning system and creating a mechanism by which potential breaches of the peace could be identified and dealt with.
Swaray mentioned a string of programmes in the areas of education, health and communication that would be rolled out in the coming months from which Pujehun would benefit.
In a five-point communiqué issued at the end of the meeting and signed by all the Paramount Chiefs of the district and the Chairman of the Pujehun District Descendants Association, Patrick Ansu Kaikai, the people agreed to “empanel an independent committee that will mediate all conflicts in the district.”
The meetings will be held on a rotational basis in all the chiefdoms of the district with Sorogbema chiefdom hosting the next one in November.
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