GUNPOINT SLMMDMC LEASE AGREEMENT!
…MP Blasts ‘Desperate’ Finance Minister
The bitter fight over the Kasafoni iron ore deposit has exploded, with Hon. Jawah Sesay, MP for two of the affected chiefdoms, openly accusing Finance Minister Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura of using intimidation and force to impose a government-backed lease on landowning families.
Sesay described the Minister’s recent visit to Dansogoia, Sambaia, and Diang Chiefdoms as a show of brute power, with soldiers and police flooding the villages to silence resistance. “People were terrified. The Minister came with guns, not dialogue. He simply read out a lease without engaging the rightful owners of the land,” Sesay said furiously.
The MP reminded Parliament that the Gento Group, a Sierra Leonean-owned company, had already signed a valid lease with landowners and paid surface rent. “Government must explain what becomes of Gento. You cannot erase a lawful agreement with intimidation,” he thundered.
Calling the government’s actions a blatant violation of the Constitution and the Land Rights Act 2022, Sesay warned that the people will not sit by while their ancestral land is hijacked. “We know government has power, but we too have rights. This land is our inheritance and we will defend it,” he declared.
In his defence, Minister Bangura denied claims of coercion, insisting that the military and police presence was only for his personal security.
But angry landowners and their MP say the truth is clear: the government is attempting a land grab at gunpoint, bypassing the law, undermining local rights, and siding with outsiders against Sierra Leonean investors.