Farry Kargbo
By Mustapha Kamara
Head of outreach at the Constitutional Review Committee has said that Sierra Leone’s reviewed constitution will comprise a special chapter that will protect land and other natural resources in Sierra Leone.
At a day’s engagement with journalists and experts on natural resource management in Freetown, Mohamed Faray Kargbo, said the committee had realised that the country had not benefitted from some of its natural resources over the years.
He added that for that reason they had decided that a special chapter to look specifically into land and natural resource issues should be created in the revised document.
He argued that the chapter was necessary as laws that would ensure that the country benefitted from its natural resources would be laid down.With funds from the UN development programmethe CRChad started to engage experts on natural resources, land and the environment so that committee members would be educated, adding that they would be well placed undertake a proper consultation exercise in the different communities across the country.
“What the Committee wants is to make sure that there are laws to ensure that everybody has access to land and that the environment is protected”, he said, adding that they wanted to ensure that the whole country benefitted from all its natural resources.
Chief environmental officer at the ministry of lands, Stephen Jusu, noted that as much as it was relevant to have laws that would protect land and natural resources, it would also be appropriate for the committee to have special and strong laws that would protect those lands and natural resources in the interest of the state.
(C) Politico 23/10/14
