Pastor Mohamed Sesay
Sierra Leone Telegraph: 22 August 2017
President Koroma was elected to office in 2007 on the platform that his All Peoples Congress party had shaken off its bad habits of old under the despots – Siaka Stevens and Saidu Momoh; with him even naming the party “New APC”.
But lo and behold after ten years in office, APC is as old in its dirty habits as it ever was.
The hurried introduction of the toll gates on elections eve is just one of the evidence that APC has never changed, and has no plans to ever change from its dirty habits, as well as its plans to want to entrench itself in power forever.
The trick is clear to see, and opposition parties are encouraged to stand firmly against the toll gates until all of them are given equal opportunity of non-payment for their use, as it has been accorded to presidential convoys.
Before the toll gates were officially opened, this APC government announced categories of vehicles that are exempted from paying, and they include presidential convoys.
It is obvious that President Koroma will be going around with whoever is selected by the APC to be its flagbearer for the 2018 presidential election.
And this means that the candidate’s own convoy will proceed behind the President without having to pay a cent at the toll gates, giving that person an unfair advantage over some twenty-five expected opposition presidential candidates.
If there is going to be fair play in the coming elections, either the toll is suspended until after the elections, or all political campaign vehicles be exempted from payment of toll fees.
The Chinese, needless to say, have shown their open leanings to the APC. Hence, rushing the opening of the toll gates without finishing construction of the road, must definitely raise suspicions as to their true motives.
Editor’s Note
kindly donate to our Freetown Flood Disaster Emergency Appeal. We’re raising £50000 to Help victims of the massive flooding in Freetown, Sierra Leone, which has taken the lives of hundreds of people, with thousands now homeless.
Please go to our JustGiving Crowdfunding Page and help make it happen:
How having toll roads in Sierra Leone can ever be justified is beyond me. How many vehicles are going to use it to pay for itself. It’s not going to be in thousands a day. Hence the hundreds of vehicles that will use the toll road will have to pay a higher rate so as to collect enough money to pay just for the cost of managing the toll booths. So paying for the toll road will never happen.
Cost of travel for the ordinary citizens in Sierra Leone is already very high. This toll road will prevent more people from travelling across the country. I predict that the toll road will be too costly to maintain, and will therefore be closed as fees will not be collected.