Residents of Nieni Chiefdom Demand Pronouncement of New Paramount Chief

By Amin Kef-Ranger

Residents of Nieni Chiefdom in Koinadugu District are desperately calling on the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to announce the name of the person whom they believe was democratically elected as Paramount Chief in the Paramount Chieftaincy election that was conducted on the 10th of June 2022 by the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone in which four candidates contested.

The start of the election was said to be peaceful and agents of all four candidates as well as observers were present and even witnessed the counting of votes.

After the counting of the votes the results that emerged were as follows: Robert Yirah Balla Koroma scored 294 votes (which is 58% of the total votes cast), Foday Manso Koroma scored 193 (which is 38% of the total votes cast) and the remaining 4% was shared among the remaining 2 candidates.

This medium learnt that the results were handed over to the Provincial Secretary for pronouncement. However, someone from the crowd, said to be a supporter of Foday Manso Koroma, rushed and snatched the ballot box but was apprehended by security personnel.

It was further understood that the Police apprehended the snatcher and collected the ballot box from him but they were greeted by a stone pelting crowd resulting in the cancellation of the pronouncement of the result and relocation to Kelleh town, which is nine miles away from Effie town, where the pronouncement was supposed to take place and so they decided that all must converge at Alkiliah town, before proceeding to Kabala town.

The said activity was again stalled, allegedly as a result of an instruction given to Cloud Kamara, the District Electoral Manager by Paul Damba, a senior official at ECSL.

Further learnt was that the other date set for the activity was again cancelled on the grounds that the President and entourage, while en route to Kono will be passing through Samaia Bendugu and most of the residents will be in Kono

Residents claimed that since then there have been series of excuses from the authorities to declare the winner of the said election, and such has resulted to desperation and frustration, as residents are restlessly yearning to have a sitting Paramount Chief.

Some residents have alleged that the delay may be as a direct result of the alleged interference by the Deputy Minister of Justice, Umaru Napoleon Koroma, who is also the Secretary General of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). They also claimed that Napoleon Koroma is a nephew of one of the losing candidates, Foday Manso Koroma, and could be using his position to prevent the authorities from pronouncing the result.

As the situation now stands,  it has been a while after the election was held but since then there has been no announcement of the winner as it was expected on the part of NEC. In that regard, the people of Nieni Chiefdom are urgently calling on NEC to officially announce the democratically elected Paramount Chief.

For now everything appears to be on a standstill as the Council of Elders have been complaining that there are no meetings, no Court sittings to address disputes etc.