TRACE JOENAL

By Martinet Sesay A t a one day conference on land Rights and how traditional leaders would take the lead in instilling sanity into the land sector, Green Scenery; a civil society organization over the weekend engaged sixty five Paramounts Chiefs (PCs) from across the country at the Wusum Hotel in Makeni. from left to right: WHH country Director, Min. Kaikai, PC Bai Sebora II, Ahmed Mustapha, Joe Rahall, Bun Wai In attendance also were officials from line ministries like Local Government, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, local councils, and members of the Action for Large Land Acquisition Transparency (ALLAT) including the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food and Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDHR) among others. In his opening remarks, the chairman of the occasion who also doubles as the Provincial Secretary of the Northern Region; Ahmed Muctarr Mustapha disclosed that eighty percent of cases reported to his office are land related.

Following his escape from a police cell in the middle of the night of 17 th March 2017, Maxwell Williams has been declared wanted by the Sierra Leone Police (SLP). Maxwell Williams declared wanted by the Sierra Leone Police Williams was arrested because he fought somebody whilst visiting a friend at the Mount Aureol Community in Freetown. According to reports, Williams fought because he was teased for being gay; and it is not the first time he has been engaged in fighting as he is sometimes abused or assaulted for LBGT-related issues. Information gathered revealed that prior to his arrest in Freetown, Williams narrowly escaped death after he was mercilessly beaten by friends and relatives of a man he fought with because of Williams’ gay leanings. He was abandoned in the bush and told that he should never return to Mafokoya, a village in the Tonkolili District, Northern Sierra Leone. But he managed to walk eight hours to the highway, eventually arriving in Freetownon 25 th