By: Nyima Sillah
Hagi Suwaneh, President of the United Democratic Youth Wing has described the recommendations in the report of the AKI Task Force as biased, saying the recommendations left out the Minister of Health.
Speaking to this medium, Suwaneh said the recommendation of the task force is biased and selective by excluding Dr. Samateh hence the majority of citizens were expecting that the minister would be at the forefront of the task force recommendations.
“We all know that this country is well familiar with stagnant waters and floods during rainy seasons. But no one ever heard of AKI before. Dr. Samateh was only deliberately trying to downplay and undermined the cause of the deadly disease that claimed 100 lives of babies and children.
The medicines responsible for the tragedy were brought to the country with the help of corruption which wouldn’t be possible in the absence of some key government institutions the Ministry of Health is no exception,” he argued.
He stressed that the presidential Task Force recommended the dismissal of both the director and the deputy director of MCA. But quickly added that the medicines were not registered or recorded by the MCA, saying Dr. Samateh is culpable and should be dismissed, too, and charged for deceiving both the parliament and the general public.
“The minister tried all means to mislead the public by organizing press conferences. He was trying to cover corruption and he doesn’t care how many people lost their lives and again the same Minister is allowed to head and read the recommendations of the Task Force.
“My question is, was he part of the Task Force? If yes, then how should we expect a fair recommendation from the principal culprit? If we speak they said we are opposition but we cannot keep silent while the country continues to sink,” he added.
