By- Aruna Rashed Toma Bangura
Pastor Samuel G. Koroma has informed this medium that two village men have threatened to kill his 80 years old father Pa Kortor Koi Koroma over a one acre banana plantation at Kakarima town, Kagbonkoboh Kayaka chiefdom, Koinadugu district, northern region.
Explaining his father’s ordeals, Pastor Samuel G. Koroma stated that one Pa. Abu Nabaynee Koroma and his son Salifu Koroma warned his father Pa. Kortor Koi Koroma to stop harvesting banana at his banana plantation and threatened to kill him if he ever step his feet on the farm, adding that both the Section Chief and Town Chief are aware about the threat.
According to Pastor Koroma, his father inherited the banana plantation from his late grandfather Pa. Bubuh Koroma and has never been questioned by any family member or outsider and so he decided to establish a banana plantation on the one acre land, adding that two big Kola trees had already been planted on the land by the late Pa. Bubuh Koroma. Pastor Koroma explained that, Pa Abu Nabaynee Koroma on March 8th 2014 told his father that “it is because Pa Kortor Koi Koroma did not support him for the Section Chief,” so therefore Pa.Kortor Koi Koroma should not harvest from the banana farm claiming that the one acre land was a property of his grandfather and threatened to kill Pa Kortor Koi if he ever harvested from the land.
He said Pa Abu Nabaynee Koroma and his son Salifu Koroma have been harvesting the banana plantation from 2014 to present and making life very unbearable, despicable and hopeless for his father whose main source of living and livelihood is the one acre banana farm.
Pastor Koroma informed this medium that they contacted one Lawyer Ezekiel Brima Koroma who filed a lawsuit on their behalf but, one Sinneh Thoronka who was a contestant at the last held Paramount Chief election advised them to settle the matter in the village rather than in court. He said the people saw the clarity during the case that the one acre banana farm belongs to his father.
Pastor Samuel G. Koroma said in the morning hours within the month of July 2022, they as children of Pa Kortor Koi brushed the plantation as a source of income for their 80years old father, adding that after returning to Freetown Pa Abu Nabaynee threatened to kill their father again for the said banana plantation.
Speaking to this medium via cell phone, Section Chief Bongo 111 justified that the banana plantation is a property of Pa Kortor Koi Koroma.
According to Section Chief Bongo 111 the matter between Pa Kortor Koi and Pa Abu Nabaynee and son was not well settled because they did not visit the plantation site but settled the matter in Kamaka village.
Pastor Koroma is now calling on the swift intervention of the Human Rights Commission (HRCSL) and other rights activist groups and the Sierra Leone Police to intervene swiftly by retrieving the plantation from the wrong hands.