News

By Steven Bockarie Mansaray Kabala

The Coordinator of the Koinadugu District Ebola Taskforce says anyone who dies of Ebola in the district henceforth will be cremated.

Momoh Konte said this to Politico after the district became the last to record a confirmed case of Ebola - two people who have already died.

By Zainab Joaque

Concern is growing in media circles that the government will soon take over media regulation as it emerged last night that the Chairman of the Independent Media Commission has written to the government saying he doesn't wish to be considered for a second term when his current mandate runs out tomorrow, 17 October 2014.

Rod Mac-Johnson told Politico last night that he was stepping down at the end of his three-year mandate but refused to be drawn on any further details.

By Mohamed T Massaquoi.

The chairman of the Pujehun District Council has kept up his attacks on the District Health Management Team accusing them of "playing games with the lives of residents of Pujehun district".

Sadiq Sillah told an Ebola task force meeting, a week after announcing he was taking over the leadership of the group, that  "health workers at peripheral health units are not treating their work with seriousness", because they leave the units unattended "to do private business, totally un-related to the Ebola virus disease."

President Ernest Bai Koroma yesterday assured the visiting joint US-Norwegian delegation that his country would not "export" Ebola to any other country, according to a newsfeed from the State House Communication Unit.

Meeting at State House with the delegation which included the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Rajiv Shaw and Norwegian foreign minister, Borge Brende, the president said Ebola was not something anybody wanted, noting that it was a global issue.

By Joseph Lamin Kamara

Head of the Local Tax Unit at Freetown City Council says the behaviour of government institutions in relation to local tax payment is slowing down the development of the city but also the country.

Thomas Patrick Kangoma told Politico that ministries and other public offices had been evading council tax for the past three to four years.

“What is most annoying is that our government ministries don’t pay their taxes at all,” said Kangoma, adding that “the only ministry that is compliant is the local government ministry.”

By Bampia James Bundu

Head of the Mabesseneh Hospital in Lunsar Town, Brother Michael Koroma has urged the health ministry to include the hospital into the health delivery system insisting it should be recognised.

He said the District Health Management Teams should also decentralise all catchment areas to the community hospital to ensure that it provided quality health service to the wider community.

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

A local nurse at the Annointed Nursing Home centre in Freetown has expressed confidence in the Ebola fight after gaining training from the World Health Organisation.

“Initially, I was afraid to work in the Ebola treatment centres, but with this training, I have got much confidence to work in any treatment centre” Francis Edward Kamara said.

He said the training was very important and had come at the right time.