"Landowners protest over delayed report in southern Sierra Leone"

Executive members of an organisation representing landowners engaged in a long drawn out dispute with Socfin Agriculture Company in Malen Chiefdom in the Pujehun district have appealed to President Julius Maada to intervene so as to realise “a win-win outcome”.

In a letter addressed to President Bio that was on social media, members of Malen Affected Land Owners Association (MALOA)   expressed concern over delay in the releasing of a report by a Technical Team that investigated the problems between the two parties. They recalled the engagements they had with Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh in November 2018 when he was reportedly sent by President Bio to mediate between the two groups. The landowners said the Vice President endorsed the setting up of a Technical Team that was to investigate the land conflict.

The locals say the team which was headed by former deputy Minister of Justice, Abdulai M. Bangura held fact-finding meetings with stakeholders in Malen chiefdom and visited sites. According to MALOA , two years now since the team concluded its investigations and wrote a report, their appeal for a public disclosure of the said report has not been heeded. In the letter, they also alleged Socfin was trying to use another mediation process to discredit the previous one, and also claimed of arrests by the security forces of people, confiscation of palm –oil produced on private farms and the use of Socfin’s radio station in making disparaging remarks about the leadership and ordinary members of MALOA.