By Mohamed T Massaquoi
Hundreds of land owners and other descendants of Galliness Perri chiefdom in Pujehun district recently held a meeting at Blama Massaquoi where they expressed "disappointment over the operations of China Kingho Investment in the Gendema section of our district".
The Section Chief of Gendema, Alhaji Kamara told the gathering that "we are being sidelined in the negotiations and the existence of this company in our area has been a serious disaster to our living conditions". He said the company had "destroyed most of our plantations without compensation and our brothers who are working for the company are not ready to listen to our complaints".
The chief said they would never allow their section headquarter town of Gendema, known as Funyehun, to be relocated as proposed by China Kingho.
The chairman of Pujehun District Council who is a landowner in the chiefdom, condemned the manner in which the company was operating in the chiefdom despite the fact that he believed in foreign investment.
Sadiq Sillah said "credibility and trust from us as landowners has been lost because of the initial performance of the company and they should bear it at the back of their minds that their operations should be governed by the Mines and Minerals Act and it should be of international standards.
Another landowner, Joe Kallon told the meeting that "we have not been formally informed about the operations of this company in our chiefdom and the mines and minerals act of 2009 clearly states that a foreign company should do proper negotiation with landowners before operating on their lands".
Kallon said all ordinary residents of the company's area of operation should be equally involved "because they would bear the environmental hazards the company would create in their communities".
He described China Kingho's local consultant, Patrick Ansu Kaikai as "our brother from Pujehun district and I want him to gain more benefit from the Chinese but at the same time he should be aware of the fact that he is not part of our land in this chiefdom where the company is operating, therefore he should not be taking decisions on our behalf."
Kallon said they had made several attempts to talk to the company through letters "but there's been no positive outcome".
One of China Kingho's senior advisers, Patrick Ansu Kaikai denied all the allegations against him and the company, adding that "in fact I will not come down to their level anymore because this is just malice."
He said people were fully compensated for whatever the company had destroyed in their operational areas, adding that several meetings had been held in the chiefdom including disclosures to inform land owners about their operations. "Besides that we are all part of the chiefdom", he argued.
Kaikai denied taking decisions on behalf of the landowners and that "it is only now that people like Joe Kallon and others are coming around to play on the minds of the people for their own individual benefits" asking rhetorically, "why have they not been coming all along?"
He said the company was meeting its Corporate Social Responsibility in full.
(C) Politico 08/07/14
