Parliament Orders Military Chief to Explain Alleged Land Seizure from Services Secondary School
Parliament has directed the Clerk to officially summon Sierra Leone’s Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Amara Idara Bangura, and the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education over allegations of land grabbing involving the Services Secondary School in Freetown.
The decision came after a session presided over by Acting Speaker Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, during which concerns were raised about the reported intention of the Chief of Defence Staff to demolish school-owned structures and hand over the land to a private business operator for commercial use.
Citing Standing Order 23, Deputy Opposition Leader Hon. Daniel Brima Koroma expressed strong disapproval of the alleged actions, which he said directly contradict the government’s flagship Human Capital Development programme and the Free Quality Education (FQE) policy spearheaded by President Julius Maada Bio.
Koroma described the reported attempt to reassign the school’s land to a private entrepreneur as a deliberate and damaging act. He argued that it not only threatened the integrity of educational infrastructure but also amounted to open defiance of Parliament and disrespect toward the President’s education reforms.
“The idea that land belonging to a public school could be transferred to a businessman, with backing from the military, is not only deeply troubling but undermines our national priorities on education,” he said. He called for the immediate establishment of a Special Interest Committee to investigate the matter thoroughly.
In response, Acting Speaker Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh urged calm and suggested that the relevant parliamentary committees on Defence, Education, and Lands jointly review the issue. He also instructed the Clerk of Parliament to formally summon the Chief of Defence Staff for questioning over the matter.
The development has sparked growing public interest as it touches on the sensitive intersection of public education, military authority, and land governance.
