By Alpha Sesay
The attention of one of our ace reporters was drawn to a human interest story relating to the plight of a Sierra Leonean lady, Mariatu Melvina Conteh, a native born of Magburaka Town, in the Northern Province of the country, who was residing on Lamina Street. This lady left Sierra Leone in 2018 for Dubai to fend for a living or seek for an employment opportunity since the country was going through harsh economic times and the unemployment rate was rising with no easy solution in sight. Since she left to date she has been in Dubai going through the thick and thin that migrant workers are undergoing in that country.
However, her situation is quite different from other migrant workers and it is indeed a very interesting and pathetic one. As her situation now stands, Mariatu Melvina Conteh, currently falls into the quagmire of not been able to gather the temerity or the zest of returning to her homeland out of an intense fear that she may be politically trapped and probably loses her life.
Her fears are so real to an extent that when our ace reporter conducted a thorough investigation as to what is really making her panicky of returning to her country of origin a lot of revelations materialized.
Our reporter unearthed that prior to and during the 2018 electioneering year, Mariatu’s entire family, especially her father and brothers, were dogged, staunch and diehard supporters of the incumbent political party, the All People’s Congress (APC) Party who were actively campaigning against the opposition political party, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) that was very determined to take over the governance seat from the APC.
That electioneering year was indeed a very tense one with intermittent skirmishes taking place in different parts of the country between supporters of the rival political parties. Mariatu’s family members were not only very vociferous but extremely active in their campaigns to an extent that they were taken note of, some deeming them as notorious, especially when one of her brothers was allegedly accused of fuelling a violent political confrontation in which some SLPP members sustained serious injuries. Since that skirmish took place her family members became a target of political persecution as some SLPP supporters vowed that they will pay for the serious injuries that they have inflicted on their members, whom they regard as their brothers and sisters.
Things took a different turn when the SLPP emerged victorious when the elections results were announced. That was when hell break lose for Mariatu Melvina Conteh’s family.
However, before the serious manhunt was launched by irate SLPP thugs against family members of Mariatu, in the form of political reprisals, she was lucky to have an opportunity to travel to Dubai but notwithstanding that she has already been blacklisted, with her name on the wanted list.
From the information our reporter gathered, the political harassment on her family members became so tense and unbearable that they were forced to clandestinely depart from Magburaka with different family members going their own separate ways.
Caught in this ugly quagmire, Mariatu Melvina Conteh currently finds herself between the devil and the deep blue sea in Dubai. She is so afraid of returning to Sierra Leone out of the fear that she might be spotted by certain irate SLPP supporters, most of whom it is said are thugs, and that something untoward or unfortunate could happen to her. Furthermore, since she left there had been no form of an effective communication with her family members as she is totally ignorant of their whereabouts.
Fearing for her safety, Mariatu Melvina Conteh’s plight could be likened to a Stateless Person which makes it such an interesting human interest story which we thought needs publication. For now what could be her fate or the best option remains very uncertain.
