Africell: What Time is It?

West wing                                                                                South wing

East wing                                                                                North wing

By Bampia Bundu

Residents of Makeni, in Northern Sierra Leone, have claimed that they were deceived by mobile telecommunications company, Africell Lintel SL Ltd, for what they described as a clock tower with fake clocks.

According to residents who spoke to AYV, since the commissioning of the clock tower on 23^rd February, 2012 the clocks, four in total, all show different times.

“If the clock on the North wing shows 12 pm, the one on the South wing will be a couple of hours faster or slower and the same goes for those on the East and West wings,” they said.

They also explained that at no one point in time, since the tower was officially commissioned, has the four clocks shown unity in time.

According to Ibrahim Kamara who does business near the clock tower, he and his colleagues were not only disappointed at Africell but also with President Ernest Bai Koroma and his Government for not properly checking the quality of the clocks before rushing to commission them just to score political points.

Kamara confessed that from its appearance the clock tower is magnificent and gave a facelift to the architectural outlook of the city but urged the Government and Africell to work fast to fix the clocks and save themselves and the people of Makeni from further embarrassment.

Another resident, Madam Aminata Sesay, expressed similar disappointment but pointed fingers at the contractors who she accused of probably procuring low quality clocks.

However, the Public Relations Officer of Africell, Mr. Tommy Terry Coker, told AYV that after the commissioning of the clock tower, the structure was officially handed over to the Makeni City Council.

“It is the responsibility of the Council to take care of the clock tower and inform us in the case of any technical problem which they cannot fix,” said Coker.

In addition, Africell’s Corporate Affairs Officer, Mr. Joe Abass Bangalie, said though it was news to them, it could be a technical problem details of which he could not readily provide. However, he assured that they would look into the matter.