The residents of Wara Wara Yagala Chiefdom including former Minister of Works and Government assets, Peter Bayuku Konteh on Wednesday called on the Government of Sierra Leone to ensure a “thorough, independent, transparent investigation” into the killing of two of their young men.
Both young men, resident of Wara Wara Yagala Chiefdom were killed when irate youth of Diang Chiefdom, descended on residents of Lenkekoro village as a result land dispute.
The family of the slain young people, elders of chiefdom have called on the Government, the Police and Justice Sector to ensure accountability over the killing and disturbances in the chiefdom.
At a media briefing at his office along Lumley, the former Minister of Works and Public Assets, Peter Bayuku Konteh noted that in the wake of the attacks on his people that led to the killing and many more injured there has been “no accountability and no action from the Sierra Leone administration.”
“We didn’t have the opportunity to even grieve as a chiefdom. We couldn’t mourn our slain brothers because we had to continuously call for accountability, for justice.”
Peter Bayuku Konteh said the two young men were killed in cold blood and this is unacceptable.
“Until we can figure out why and how this happened and this behind the killing, the safety of every resident in Wara Wara Yagala Chiefdom is at great risk,” Konteh said.
Konteh and residents of the chiefdom are calling for justice and to compel the Government of Sierra Leone, the police to produce a report on the incident in consultation with the chiefdom authorities.
“This is the bare minimum of what the slain young men deserves,” Konteh said while briefing news men about the act.
However, information reaching this medium has stated that an independent investigation by the police is ongoing with fingers pointing at the Paramount Chief of Diang Chiefdom to have motivated young people in chiefdom to go on killing spree.
In May of this year members of the Koranko ethnic group descended on their Limba counterparts in Lenkekoro Village killing two of them and wounding many others.
The fatalities accordingly resulted from machete wounds sustained during the violent clashes perpetrated mainly by motivated Koranko youth. The violence is said to have erupted from a long-standing land dispute, between the two chiefdoms—Wara Wara Yagala, predominantly Limba, and Diang, largely Koranko—separated only by a single street.
Meanwhile, the National Land Commission (NLC) has held collaborative discussions with key land stakeholders in the Koinadugu District, with a view of brokering a peaceful resolution to ongoing land dispute, heightened by violent clashes, between Diang and Wara Wara Yagala Chiefdoms.
The commission made a trip to the chiefdom to gather first-hand information, appreciate the interventions made by the district stakeholders, and admonish both parties to remain calm while investigations continue.
