Driven with robust anti-corruption crusade thirst, and as a way of taking anti-corruption messages to far removed and remote communities in Sierra Leone, the North West Regional Office of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has on Thursday, 27th January, 2022 sensitized traders, farmers and local residents at the Roktorlon Luma (trade fair) few kilometers from Gbinti town, in Dibia Chiefdom, Karene District.
Such an extraordinary radical move into busy business arenas with anti-corruption messages where most buyers, sellers, producers (farmers) and transporters from different villages converged in the name of commercial business transactions are hard to capture attentive attraction.
The Luma's attention was strategically captured by the ACC with rapt attention which was caught from hundreds of people heeding with curiosity to anti-corruption messages.
Remote and deprived communities are mostly sufferers from the brunt of corruption and its effects, which prompted the outreach engagement. Development is stifled and most crafty and foxy community developmental animators and change agents usurp and take advantage of opportunities to source material and financial resources in the name of developing community indigenes' livelihoods and structuring tangible features, which prompted the ACC to engage in such sensitization.
During the open air engagement at the Roktorlon Luma in Dibia Chiefdom of Karene District, key corruption issues in public health centres, local court administration, schools, police etc, formed key highlights of the message.
Taking the center stage, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Senior Public Education Officer (SPEO) Samuel Junisa Sankoh first stated that Roktorlon community and its environ have far too long neglected their local and national roles in the fight against corruption. He said the ACC is the commanding marshall in the fight against corruption, whilst community people serve as the non formal foot soldiers. "But alas!" the Senior Public Education Officer expressed dismay on how the Commission has been left out by several distanced and deprived communities with regards their vital and strategic role in corruption reporting.
Moving forward - this 2022, Samuel Junisa Sankoh implored onlookers to embrace the fight against corruption as a nationalistic and patriotic endeavour. Community role in the fight against graft, Mr. Sankoh expressed will only thrive with a willing attitude and effort. Thus, he asked that it was everyone's business to resist, reject and report all forms of corruption. The role of informants, whistle blowers and witnesses, SPEO Sankoh stressed as very viral and integral. As such, he encouraged them to embrace corruption reporting as a civic and nationalistic responsibility. The free toll hotlines: 077985985 / 077986976 / Pay No Bribe: 515 were emphatically and recurrently announced for easy public access to the ACC in terms of reporting corrupt activities. Anonymous reporting, Junisa said is permissible especially when it is not malicious. Witness protection is handled sacred by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), says Samuel Junisa Sankoh.
Anti-Corruption music, Information Education and Communication (IEC) materials were handed out to buyers and sellers during the engagement.
Interactive questions, recommendations, opinions, comments, suggestions and views received apt responses from the ACC. A resolve was gotten from the Luma community people to resist, reject and report all forms of corruption.
© ACC North- West Office
