By Mohamed Machathy
In a bid to cushion the transportation constraints of Fourah Bay College Students at Mount Aureol, Sierra Stars Company has brought 4 minibusses to ply the Imatt and Berry Street routes connecting the campus. This came after serious concerns were raised by students over the challenges in commuting to and from the college.
The Minister of Transportation for the Students Union Government, Mariam Sahid said the Students Union Government is fully aware of the apparent challenges students face with regards to transportation. She said their President Adama Sillah recently led a high-powered delegation to the First Lady of Sierra Leone, Fatima Bio in a bid to lobby with her office for support in their transportation needs.
“We concluded with negotiations that Sierra Stars will be helping us with two minibusses tentatively whilst we are pushing hard for new buses to be on campus,’’ she said. She added that it is as a result of those negotiations that Sierra Stars provided them with the minibusses. She said each student will have to pay a minimum of two thousand Leones from the various pick-up points to FBC.
The Minister said that the buses that had been parked for virtually two months on campus are having brake problems and it has been a threat to the lives of students. ‘’We cannot risk the lives of our colleagues and ourselves just to gain cheap political points,’’ she reiterated. She disclosed that the Students Union Government and the Fourah Bay College Administration have ordered some buses from abroad, which will be in the country in either April or May.
She encouraged the general student body to have faith in them, as students' issues are their utmost concern, and believed the new buses will be ideal than repairing old ones considering the terrain of the campus.
The Estate Officer at FBC, Wilfred Momoh said the old buses have been in existence for nine years and they kept receiving complaints that the brakes of those buses have become ineffective due to their lifespan which prompted him to halt their operations and avert any tragedy.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (23/02/22)
