By Yusufu Sesay
Police have been accused of disobeying the warrant orders issued by Magistrate Yusif Kamara at the Magistrate court Holdings at Mena Hill in Makeni city after some defendants repeatedly refused to appear in court for grave criminal offences allegedly committed.
Reports say that, in mid January this year, certain people from Konta village attacked the neighbouring
Mankneh village at night destroyed many buildings.
Mankneh is about 20 kilometres from Makeni city but has seen tremendous development of late, on account of the arrival of one of their sons, Dr. Roland Turay who has spent a better part of his life abroad working for United Nations (UN).
These development interventions include: construction of a primary and secondary schools, a health centre, bridges, road works, a mosque and a church, rice loan (seedlings) to farmers each year, development of a beach (Roland Beach) that attracted a lot of tourists, water wells among others.
Allegedly, these developments in Mankneh have become a thorn in the flesh of the Konta people who now work round the clock to bring everything to naught.
The latest attack on Makneh Village allegedly machinated by Paramount Chief-elect, Daniel Raymond Kamara or PC Othoraneh has destroyed most of the village facilities developed by Dr. Roland.
Following this raid, residents of Mankneh reported the matter to the Mena Hills Police station in Makeni but reportedly no serious action was taken by the police. Reportedly, the complainants from Mankneh later sued 13 people from Konta village including the Paramount Chief-elect Bai Othoraneh at the Magistrate court. “For all the two sittings at the court, the Konta people have vehemently refused to appear,” Mankneh complainants said adding that when Magistrate Yusuf Kamara issued Warrant of Arrest to the police to effect the arrest of the defendants for refusing to appear in court, the police failed to act upon it.
This development has left Magistrate Kamara frustrated and has told the plaintiffs that, his mandate is to issue “warrant of arrest” but he could not effect an arrest and that only the police have that power.
“Since the warrant was issued nearly a month ago, the police had not done anything to arrest any one of the offenders” Mankneh people said.
