By Joseph S. Margai in Freetown, Sierra Leone
One of the popular candidates of Ward 382, Mohamed Opeh Koroma, has decided to contest the Local Council election slated for March 7th as independent after his former party, the All People’s Congress (APC) denied him the party’s symbol.
Ward 382 is situated in Constituency 107 in the Western Area Rural District between Lumpa, in the outskirts of Waterloo, and Newton.
Already, former Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, who was also a former Deputy Chairperson of the Port Loko District Council and a candidate for the Port Loko District Council in the March 7 Local Council election, who was denied the party’s symbol, Rugiatu Neneh Turay, also went independent alongside seventeen (17) councilors who were also denied the party’s symbol.
Speaking to Groove 106FM in Waterloo on Monday, Mohamed Opeh Koroma said he was urged by his supporters to go independent because of his developmental strides in the ward.
“Officials of the APC party disappointed my supporters because they had earlier stated that they would go on the ground and choose whosoever was the people’s choice but they did not do so. They used another method which was very unfamiliar to the people of Ward 382. I am the most popular candidate who was denied the symbol,” he said.
He alleged that the one that the party awarded the symbol to was very unpopular and had not resided in the ward for the stipulated five years, which was a direct contravention of the Local Government Act of 2004.
“I have done many visible things in the community that urged the people to ask me to go independent. I am the proprietor of the Athens of African Primary and Secondary School and I am paying over 15 teachers monthly to contribute to knowledge. I was a frontrunner in the fight against Ebola under the Social Action Consortium (SMAC),” he explained.
He added that he has constructed a hall called “Five-Star” in order to create an amusement center for the people of the ward, which was absent.
He said he has awarded scholarship to students who are doing computer courses as well as those in various universities in the country, noting that he has provided water wells, and advocated and provided for micro credit for the women in the ward.
“Currently, I am fixing a road which has been non-functional for over 15 years. There was a broken bridge on the said road where people used to drown regularly. Because of its situation, people used to spend more money on commercial motor bikes and vehicles, to Waterloo and Freetown,” he said.
Fondly called Opeh by his supporters and admirers, is contesting in a ward that hosts a monumental cemetery where both victims of the Ebola disease and mudslide/flooding were buried. Currently, the cemetery is being encroached by some inhabitants of the ward for the construction of dwelling houses.
When quizzed whether he has plans to solve the problem of encroachment at the cemetery, he answered in the affirmative.
“My manifesto emphasis security, peace and stability. It’s an indication that I will provide security for everything in the ward in order to enhance sustainable development. The Ebola cemetery is very important to Sierra Leone, it will be used to identity Ward 382, and hence, we must ensure its protection. I rehabilitated the road leading to the cemetery from 555 Spot junction,” he said.
Asked what are his plans if he wins the ward election on March 7, he said he would ensure that a community centre, which is currently absent in the ward, is construct. He noted that they don’t have pipe borne water, electricity, community field, and good roads which he will address if he wins.
Opeh, who is married with six children, was not born in the ward but was brought there in 1989 and since then he has never lived outside the ward.
He said he is a successful businessman and owns many enterprises in Waterloo and its environs, adding that he also has over 20 acres of oil palm plantation and 15 acres of cassava farm in the Western Rural District.
Opeh, who is also a Public Relations Officer of the Sierra Leone Traders Union, advocated for the establishment of financial institutions in Waterloo that led to the advent of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB), First International Bank (FIBank) and Ecobank, so that traders could develop the habit of saving their monies.
