News Story

FREETOWN: NEW PEOPLE CORRESPONDENT: The two shiploads of rice donated by Colonel Gaddafi of Libya which were never publicly distributed in spite of the current hunger and hardship in the country, has already been sold, with teh proceeds going to the APC office,The New People can now authoritatively reveal. The APC Central committee has again met, this time to plan strategies for using the money from the rice sale to import another 2 shiploads of rice just before the local government elections. That rice will be sold at low prices and it will be accompanied by massive APC propaganda that the APC government has finally resolved the problem of hunger in the country, according to inside APC sources. The APC government plans to distribute the rice among their local government candidates who will then sell the rice at a lower price as they campaign for the local govenment elections, sources in the leadership hierarchy of the All Peoples Congress (APC) have revealed.

In addition, sources close to APC party scribe, Victor Bockarie Foh, have revealed that President Koroma and the inner core (including Trade Minister, Alimamy Koroma and Deputy Finance Minister, Richard Konteh) held a meeting at his Goderich residence during which it was decided that the APC should import 2 shiploads of rice close to the local government elections. Each candidate would receive a quota which he or she would take to his constituents and tell them that APC had imported rice for them and that this is just the first consignment.

Each candidate will then sell the rice at a low price in his or her constituency. They would then pay the money from the rice back to APC party headquarters and the party will use the profit to sponsor each candidate's campaign. This, Victor Foh and Co believe, is the only way in which the APC can convince hungry Sierra Leoneans that they are doing something about the massive hunger crisis in this country and to also vote for the party.

A cross section of Sierra Leoneans has condemned this callous disrespect for the hungry and suffering people of Sierra Leone. They all agree that the people of Sierrra Leone will be very angry after all this suffering to realise that the APC government has been playing politics with their lives just because of elections and politics.

Alimamy Kamara, who a petty trader from the Magazine Cut area shouted angrily, "I nor go rayt; I nor go rayt. Na di seym tin SLPP du. Den bin fil se den go bribe wi wit rehs en money. But wi gi dem ejecment notis."(That will not happen. The SLPP did the same thing. The SLPP thought it could bribe us wit money and rice, but we ejected them [from power]."

Hawa Koroma was more circumspect: "Bo, nor to so. Den dae draiv big big motor car day en neh but pipul dae sleep wit hangri. So APC wan wait tay pipul dae fordom en die wit hangri? Gari price orl don go ohp. Di govment wan se back na Worl price? Bo, nor to so!" (This is not right. They (APC officials) drive big cars while ordinary citizens are going to bed hungry. Does the APC want to wait to do something about the situation only after people start dropping dead from hunger? Even the price of Gari has gone up. Does the APC want to tell us that this is because of world prices? This is not right.)

Abdul Kallon who described himself as an APC sympathiser noted, "we sehf nor know ow for explayn igain. We don tell pipul den se na SLPP, but pipul den see se nor to SLPP. We tell pipul den se na World Price, but pipul den know say nor to no world price. Mi ar nor know." Dis nor to SLPP or APC biznehs. Orl man dae suffer. Leh di govment du somtin." (We really do not know how else to explain the situation to people. We told people that SLPP is responsible, but the people know that SLPP is not responsible. We told people that it is a "World Price" crisis, but people know it is not "world prices." I really don't know what else to say. This (Hunger) is not about SLPP or APC, everybody is suffering. Government has to do something about that."