“We don’t fake but Act” -Resident Minister East

By Elkass I.L. Sannoh

The Resident Minister Eastern Provinces, Mr. William Juana Smith, yesterday told AYV that the All People’s Congress (APC) party does not make fake promises but real promises backed by action.

Speaking from his Maxwell Khobe Street Office in Kenema town, Kenema District, Mr. Smith expounded on his party’s infrastructural development and provision of social services such as electricity which residents have been yearning for over the past six months. 

He disclosed that for the past two decades the District suffered from poor road network which was the major reason why farmers’ products have been perishing.  He said the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) that boasted to have firm grip over the indigenes of the Eastern region did not do anything to meaningfully upgrade the living standard of the people and change the surface of the towns in that part of the country.

Mr. Smith pointed out that since his appointment as resident minister by the President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, the rumours that used to be trumpeted about the Eastern provinces being the stronghold of the SLPP has become a thing of the past.  He said because of the sincere leadership provided by President Koroma to the people of Sierra Leone, that spell has been broken and more loyalists and patronage supporters have emerged by the setting up of different support groups for the APC party.

Cataloguing his party’s achievements, Mr. Smith said they have constructed four standard roads, and Kenema now boasts the best lorry park in the country that has just been constructed. He said the lorry park at Hangha Road was going to be officially opened by the President before the November polls.  He also said electricity is available for the people on a constant basis.

These developments, according to Mr. Smith, will attract many investors to come and invest in the eastern province of Sierra Leone as he puts it “we have made the citizenry believed that Freetown was not only Sierra Leone”. He said that was why they practicalised the process of decentralization.

In another development, the National Coordinator for the APC support group, Sheik Ahmed Sesay, donated a water pump machine to the Bike Riders Association (BRA) in Tondola, few miles to Segbwema, Njalahun Chiefdom, Kailahun district.

“This is not about politics; it is about manifesting our love for your Association as being active partners in our country’s development process,” Mr. Sesay said.

He observed that the BRA has contributed to the economic growth of the country by paying different dues required by the Sierra Road Transport Corporation.  He revealed that the APC government is constructing the Kenema-Kailahun Road for the benefit of all Sierra Leoneans.  He said Kailahun can now boast of having some roads that have been constructed and supply of pipe borne water although they have not been completed.