With a concerted resolution by Members of Parliament, the Acting Speaker, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, 10th July 2025, ordered the Clerk of Parliament to summon the Chief of Defense Staff, Lieutenant General Amara Idara Bangura, and the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education, relating to actions of the Chief of Defense Staff with an intention to demolish property owned and situated on the land of Services Secondary School, and to give the school’s land to a business operative for trading.
Pegging his submission on Standing Order 23, the Deputy Opposition Leader, Hon. Daniel Brima Koroma, intimated the House that the key flagship programme of the Bio-led Government is Human Capital Development, coupled with the Free Quality Education initiative. He therefore urged all Members of Parliament to support the government by ensuring that all learning institutions remained intact and protected.
He described the actions of the Chief of Defence Staff to take the land belonging to Services School and give to a private business owner as a conscious move to deprive Services Secondary School of its legitimate land. He noted that the Chief of Defence Staff’s intention of taking the land from Services Secondary School to give it to a private businessman was a very sardonic move, tantamount to undermining the government’s human capital development.
He considered the move by the Chief of Defence Staff as an insult to Parliament and an insult to President Julius Maada Bio’s Government, and a nefarious disregard to the Free Quality Education. He therefore suggested that the House established a Special Interest Committee to handle the matter.
In response to the concerns raised by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the Acting Speaker, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, appealed to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to allow the Committees of Defence, Education, and Lands to look into the matter.
The Acting Speaker, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh has also directed the Clerk of Parliament to write to the Chief of Defence Staff, summoning him to appear before Parliament in connection to matter herein.
