Mines Minister Vows To Fire Community Relations Staff

Stealing fuel from the Mines has been a perennial problem, dating way back to the days of Austro Minerals. The recent attempted theft case met with keen vigilance and stiff resistance from the security unit of the Mines. As a result, 3 of the alleged robbers escaped, but unfortunately, the landed themselves in the lake and drowned. Their remains are at the Connaught hospital for postmortem.

A high-powered government delegation led by the Mines Minister, Timothy Kabba, accompanied by the Resident Minister, Northwest, who doubles as the Presidential Spokesman, Alpha Kanu, visited the site. AIG Northwest inter alia, also made an assessment visit to the site. They met with some senior workers at the Mines and later left for Tendatha.

At a public meeting in Tendatha, a village that has just lost three young men in an alleged drowning incident that has nothing to do with community relations, but security, Timothy Kabba made a stunning announcement (supported by Alpha Kanu) that he will make sure that Professor Sheikh Umarr Kamarah, the Director of Community Relations and his entire departmental staff are fired by MML.

What is intriguing is that the issue at hand has to do with security and not community relations, so why should the community relations staff be the ones to receive a punishment (if at all) committed by another department?

Pundits say that a certain set of people had influenced the minister to say such, and it is all about the Community Development Fund that will soon be paid to the Marampa community?

These community stakeholders never liked the open-spectacle policy of Professor Kamarah, who, by the way, happens to be a friend to the two ministers. Since Professor Kamarah became the Director of Community Relations, the beneficiaries in all villages know what’s due them, unlike before, when the knowledge of the quantum of money and rice was just limited to the Landowners Committee. 

Concerned residents hope the ministers will not fall for this corrupt move by some unscrupulous land owners, adding that the ordinary man in the Lunsar area is happy with the way and manner Prof Kamarah and his team are relating with them. They furthered that as recent as two weeks ago, an advert for the award of scholarships to 30 University students was on several newspapers and social media. This, they say, is Prof Kamarah’s transparent way of doing things.

©Abdul Wahab Kabia

Marampa Voice