William N. Jalulah
19 February 2008
Saboba — Confusion is said to have engulfed the Saboba branch of the Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS), and some citizens of the area, over an allegation that the officer in charge of Red Cross in the district, Mr. Henry Kolan, had diverted relief items meant for victims of last year's flood.
Whilst Messrs. Andrew Namuel, Patience Wumbei and Master Kanjo, who work with the Red Cross, are accusing their boss, Henry Kolan, of diverting the relief items, the latter is also blaming a volunteer of the society, and National Disaster manegment Organisation (NADMO) officials of the mass diversion of the relief items.
Mr. Andrews Namuel, Madam Patience Wumbei and Master Kanjo, all volunteers at the office of the GRCS in Saboba, have accused Mr. Kolan of diverting a huge chunk of the relief items, meant for flood victims in Saboba and its environs, and selling them to market women.
According to Mr. Namuel, who spoke to this reporter at Saboba, Mr. Konlan diverted one of the two mini cargo trucks, loaded with tents and other relief items, to his private residence, and later took the remaining ones to a certain community called, Tanjameen.
Mr. Namuel, who claimed to be the leader of the distribution team, said though he was supposed to be part of the distribution tour, that fateful day, Mr. Kolan only chose his son, daughter and another young man, late in the evening, to go for the distribution exercise at Wenchiki, Nakako and Tanjameen.
When he later wanted to know, from his boss, why he and his colleagues were not part of the exercise, his boss vented his anger on him.
He (Namuel), then decided to report him to the chief, but on his way to the chief's palace, he met the assembly man, Mr. Joseph Ninkpe, who took him to the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Azumah Namoro Sanda, where the matter was settled.
The volunteers further alleged that some items, diverted by his boss, were transported to Saboba market, where it was intercepted by a group of people at the Saboba Technical School (SABTECH).
According to them, when Mr. Kolan got wind of the interception of the items, he hurried to the scene, pleaded with the people, and even offered to buy a motorbike for a woman who was insisting on either reporting him to the police or the chief.
The items were then released to the market women, who had already paid for them.
He said the items were originally kept at the E. P. Church Mission, but were later conveyed to a private house, from where their boss sneaked them out and sold them to the market women, under the cover of darkness.
Mr. Namuel contended that Kolan, his son and daughter, did selective distribution of the items, regardless of those who were affected by the floods.
He said they the volunteers were 10, but presently their boss had discarded them and recruited four new persons to help in the distribution exercise.
He said further that Mr. Kolan also ignored the first list that he (Namuel) had registered. Namuel noted that until Mr. Kolan introduced unfairness, the whole exercise was going on smoothly.
When Mr. Kolan was contacted for comments, he debunked all the allegations made against him, and said so far the distribution exercise had been successful.
He said the items, which were intercepted at SABTECH, were only 16 mats, and that he was not the one who was responsible for transporting them to the market.
According to him, though he had intervened for the release of the items, he did not have a hand in diverting them.
He said his reason for intervening was that he did not want the people to blacklist Saboba, looking at the enormous benefits that were coming to them.
"Red Cross will come and take all the items back, and this will blacklist Saboba," he added.
The District Officer revealed that he had given some items to the volunteers, because they were not paid for the services they rendered, and that it was their right to sell them if they so wished.
He noted that the items, which were intercepted, might have been part of those he gave to the unpaid volunteers.
"I will not say that all my boys, who were doing distribution, their hands can be completely clean. But all the same, I don't believe that they would have gone too far, to what we mean by diversion.
"You see, when we speak of diversion, we speak of large volumes, perhaps, a whole load of northern commodities, and this never occurred in Saboba. It didn't even occur in any of our operational areas in this country. It is only NADMO, it was rumored, that carried out diversions," he said.
The District Officer asserted that if people were also given some specific items, and wanted to sell them to buy what could satisfy their needs, it was their right, because the Red Cross could not give them all the kinds of relief items.
Mr. Kolan said 11 communities in the district, with Saboba area having 6, were benefiting.
He contended that some community members turned his staff out, during the registration process, saying that they were thieves, but when they did first and second rounds of the distributions, those who benefited were satisfied.
He believed that it was those who did not get the items, because they failed to register, were the ones who were angry and jealous of the outcome.
"If anybody in Saboba says Red Cross goods were diverted, they are telling lies, and I don't mind whatever they say. But the consequences of it will be like this; they will blacklist Saboba and no Red Cross activity will go on there again.
"Now if these stories are going about like that, I don't think it will auger well, and one can't be so much happy to do any serious training to improve the lives of the people. If you are suffering for people, working hard for them and they cannot even praise you and will rather turn to give rumours, and talk about things they cannot even see and justify, it's not the best," he lamented.
He denied that Mr. Namuel was the leader of the distribution team, and mentioned one Yaw Mahama as the team leader.
He said all the 50 tents that were brought recently, including rice, blankets, and buckets, were untouched and were yet to be distributed.
Mr. Kolan said the volunteers registered some people who were not affected by the floods, thus were not qualified to benefit.
He suggested that their intention to register such unqualified persons could be on humanitarian grounds. This resulted in 24 people from Nakpando-Hilltop, who had been registered and took some items, though they were not qualified.
"When I noticed this, I did not give chance, and that is why I have become an enemy and subject of discussion, instead of being a subject of praise," he said.
He said this move did not go down well, with the people of Nalongni, who organized a meeting to protest against unqualified persons going for the relief items.
To him it was these people who were fueling the allegations that he had diverted the items.
Mr. Kolan denied that the volunteers had reported him to the DCE, for diverting the items, but rather they reported him to the DCE, on the grounds that he had not paid them their allowances and for being excluded in the distribution exercise.
He accused Mr. Namuel of embezzling some building materials, belonging to the district NADMO office, and using them to put up a house.
He alleged that Namuel was employed by NADMO in June last year, and has since not been paid, so he took some building materials and put up a house.
Mr. Namuel has refuted this allegation saying; "it was my mother's pension benefit we used to build the house."
Mr. Kolan alleged that officials of NADMO, in the district, had carried some of the relief items to Mango in Togo, and sold them, while some buyers also came to their houses and bought some of the items, but nobody had heard anything, adding that; "but just because I am a Bimoba man - a person who is not a Konkomba. The Konkombas do what they want there, and they even do worse things and nobody talks, but when it comes to a different person, who has come to help the area, they talk about him."
When asked what he meant by Konkombas have done worse things, and nobody had spoken about it, he replied; "those who have told you this and that, should have also mentioned about items being conveyed from the E.P Church Mission to a private house." Mr. Konlan explained that at a time, the Pastor had to watch over the items, because nobody was there, and that was why they had to find a place to keep the items.
He disclosed that the third stage of assistance, from the GRCS, would include training on health, such as personal hygiene. They would also provide water by drilling boreholes, construct latrines and rebuild collapsed houses.
The officer cautioned the people against marring the beauty of the exercise, which would cause the Society to withdraw its assistance.
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