By Mohamed Kamara
Many residents of Mayankay village in the Labesaygahun Chiefdom with chiefdom headquarters at Bathkanu in the Karene district are planning a protest against a chiefdom speaker.
The chiefdom is found in the North West of Sierra Leone.
The protest will be lead by a principal farmer Mr. Joseph Yankay Kargbo. These people are planning to stage a peaceful protest to the Rogbanah Police Station in Makeni over the delay in the investigations of the killing of Mr. Mohamed Kargbo.
Kargbo was 53 years old and in the month of August this year, he was accused of killing a goat owned by the speaker of the Chiefdom named Mr. Lamin Kargbo. The Chiefdom Speaker is the brother of the Paramount Chief of the Chiefdom P/C Bai Yankay Kargbo ll.
Numerous attempts were made to reach the communications officer one Mr. John Abass whose mobile number was facilitated by the Investigation Officer ASP John G.K. Williams.
But Mr Williams had refused to talk to the press citing procedural conditions be met by the media.
However, this medium conducted an interview with Mr. Joseph Yankay who is living in the USA and with three indigenes of Mayankay village on the issue.
Also eyewitness reports from Mayankay Village say the goat is owned by the Speaker of the Chiefdom Mr. Lamin Kargbo. When the goat was missing and later discovered dead in the bush after numerous search by men loyal to speaker. The speaker instructed his men to lay ambush at the scene and the victim Mr. Mohamed Kargbo was taking food to his workers in the farm together with one Osman Kargbo, and on their way they smelled an odour which resembles a dead person.
Mohamed Kargbo left Osman on the road and went inside the bush to trace the odour. He discovered that the odour comes from a goat which has been killed. Two men came out of the bush and they interrogated him later while beating him to death.
When the case was reported by other farmers who rushed to the scene, the speaker remarked that he who kills an animal without permission should equally be killed. This statement brought suspicion among the residents and they waited no time to alert the Rogbanah Police Station who visited the village and arrested three suspects, in August this year.
Since then the villagers were never informed about the latest on the case. This gives them the impression that something is wrong with the investigations.
Another problem which has caused a wide range of discontent is that the Paramount Chief of the Chiefdom P/C Bai Yankay Kargbo 2nd who is believed to be in good health delegated functions to the speaker who was not approved by the Chiefdom Committee.
The speaker Mr. Lamin Kargbo is also accused of taking bribes from cattle owners whose cattles have destroyed crops valued at million Leones since he took over the functions of the chiefdom twenty years ago.