NEWS Deputy Minister of Social Welfare Humiliates Imams Over Sacrificial Meat Posted by on Mar 9, 2010, 16:55

The Deputy Minister of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs Haja Jenneh Kandeh on Saturday 6th March, 2010; denied several Islamic organizations and Imams their rights to receive the sacrificial meat meant for the poor and needy. The usual sacrificial meat sent by Saudi Arabia through the Islamic Development Bank to needy countries around the globe including Sierra Leone has arrived in town again with the rich and affluent dominating and depriving the poor. 

In other countries, it is distributed by Islamic Originations or the Ministry of Religious Affairs.   But in Sierra Leone the case is different as it is distributed by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affair.  A ministry that has no positive service to render to the Islamic Religion apart from gains it is receiving both in Sierra Leone and abroad.  In the past the distribution process was supervised and monitored by some officials of the ministry in collaboration with a cross section of Muslim Clerics in the country.

But this year, it appears totally different as it was done solely by the Ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs Officials including the Deputy Minister Haja Jenneh Kandeh. There was a list of Mosques they claimed should benefit from the sacrificial meat, but ironically those that benefited from the Saudi Arabia gift were ridiculous and few. They distributed according to the coupons they claimed to have issued out and not according to the number of Mosques the government has issued out licenses to operate.

The Al’asqa Mosque at the Main Motor Road in Brook fields was one of the Centres used for the distribution purpose. The prisons vehicle used to convey the meat from Fisheries to the centre returned with almost half of its contents leaving the needy shouting “UNA NOR WAN GEE WEE DI BEEF? WE WAN EAT” meaning that “don’t you want to give us the meat? “We want to eat”.  Eye witness account states that a very senior Imam was questioned several times to produce his mosque membership ID card, and at the end he was deprived of the meat.

At other Distribution Centers at Lumley, similar humiliation was suffered by Imams and Muslim believers who went for the meat. They were humiliated, deprived or told to go home with empty containers. Some Mosques even suffered worst as they ordered the Imams to go and bring their ID cards after so many assurances and by the time the Imams return, officials from the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Deputy Minister had already gone with the meat loaded in the prisons vehicles. The vehicle returned with 83 cartoons out of the 89 cartoons meant for supply, with only 6 distributed. Muslims across the country and their Imams are now calling for the intervention of President Koroma.

Some of the Muslim Jamaats came from Waterloo, Gbendembu, Jui and its surroundings when they heard the announcement on the Voice of Islam Radio Station, saying that they should collect their slips for the supply of the sacrificial meat, but had to return home without a single piece, despite money used for transportation to Freetown and back, nobody including officials from the Ministry of Social Welfare and Gender Affairs was in sympathy with them.  Members of the different Jamaats claimed that the Ministry had shared thousands of cartoons of the sacrificial meat allegedly to party loyalists including their Abacha Street supporters and other well placed individuals in the Country who are not ardent Muslims and members of any Jamaat and took home the leftovers.

What is rather painful to witness is the presence of the meat on market tables at the different markets in the city sold out to the public. The Hizbullah Chief Imam, Sheikh Umar Fu’ad Kanu explained his ordeal to this press. He said that he was molested by the Deputy Minister Haja Jenneh Kandeh because he mistakenly left his ID card despite effort by Brother Wusha-Conteh of the Voice of Islam and other prominent people present at the scene to identify him; he was not countenanced by either the Ministry of Social Welfare officials or the Deputy Minister, Jenneh Kandeh.