Mistaken Identity...Sheku Mansaray wanted

We published a story about the flogging of one Foday, who was mistaken for one Sheku Mansaray, alleged to have stolen an unspecified quantity of diamonds from certain miners in Kono.
The Exclusive have reliably learned that, Sheku Mansaray was abducted by RUF rebels and was actually forced to engage in illegal mining activities for the rebels during which he was accused of stealing an unspecified quantity of gems which he used to pave his way out of the country.
In their desperate quest to retrieve the missing gems, the rebels attacked one Foday who bears a very striking resemblance with Sheku Mansaray.  Foday was reported to have been beaten to death, only for the rebels to later realise that he was in fact not the Sheku Mansaray they were looking for.
 Sheku Mansaray was later informed about this development which forced him to flee the country.
Latest reports reaching The Exclusive Newspaper say, on realising that they attacked the wrong person, Foday’s assailants have become even more determined to track down their actual suspect, Sheku.

Sheku Mansaray

 Reports reaching The Exclusive say; Sheku, who is presently believed to be in Holland have been strongly advised by his Sierra Leonean friends in Holland that it would not be safe for him to return to Sierra Leone now because the miners have become even more determined than ever, to unleash terror on him should they lay hands on him and fails to produce the diamonds.
According to independent investigations carried out by this press, Sheku was among the victims of the decade long conflict in Sierra Leone whose parents were brutally murdered by the rebels.

NRA Traps Notorious Smugglers

The preventive duties and Special Unit of the National Revenue Authority (NRA) arrested in the northern province over the weekend four trailers full of smuggled items.
According to NRA release, the arrested trailers, each with the size of forty-foot containers, were packed with assorted smuggled items, ranging from motor bikes, gun powder, paint, petroleum products to soap, cigarettes, use clothing, shoes and cosmetics.
Under the command of Assistant Commissioner of Special Duties, retired Colonel Mike Conteh, the team waylaid the smugglers under a heavy down pur of rain, the release state, adding that the drivers and the apprentices of the vehicles have been arrested by the police, and are been investigated.
Rtd. Colonel Conteh said the raid meant to send clear signal to the smugglers of the resolve of the NRA in tackling the smuggling menace in the country.
Another operation also took place in the northern province with the support of locals.
It could be recalled that in its previous release NRA stated that smuggling is a “Canker-worm” in the Sierra Leonean economy, and intelligence reports indicate to the Authority that the value of revenue lost to smuggling of cigarette and petroleum products into the country alone is estimated at Le 16 Billion.
In another development, NRA yesterday held a workshop on the Entertainment Act that was enacted in July 1, 1997.
During the workshop held at NRA’s head Quarters at Bathurst Street, the Commissioner of Public Relations and Tax Education, Ms. Thelma Pratt said, observed that most proprietors of entertainment centers do not meet their tax obligations.
The Entertainment Act, she said, is backed by law and that the Act must be fully complied with by both the proprietors of chargeable entertainment and owners of premises where such entertainment are held.

Birth Spacing: A Matter of Concern

During the colonial era and even now that we proclaim moving in step with modern civilization, some of our traditional practises are alien with modern civilization.
Many African countries, today, face serious problems politically, economically and socially as a result of some of the awkward traditional practises. The issue of traditional practises is intricately tied up with Africa’s unprecedented population growth over the last decades.
The issue at stake is that traditional practices bar a good number of women in Africa to engage in birth spacing. Perhaps, it is against this background that there seems uncountable numbers of street-oriented children in many African countries.
As UNICEF research on birth spacing reveals: Empowering people with knowledge about the importance of timing births and enabling them to act on that knowledge by providing culturally acceptable methods of family planning, therefore command a place among today’s outstanding opportunities for protecting the lives and the health of many millions of women and children, particularly in Africa.
Cultural differences and traditional values make this a difficult and sensitive issue. According to medical research, today’s knowledge suggests that the chances of a woman dying in child-birth, or of a baby dying in infancy, are perhaps 50% greater if a woman becomes pregnant before the age of 18. By that age, 50% of girls in Africa and 40% of girls in Asia are married.
Sierra Leone: A test case
In recent years, the Ministry of Health with its implementing partners have spearheaded a campaign to encourage birth spacing. The campaigning or sensitization come out of the growing numbers of girls giving birth before the age of puberty or at the age of 18.
Ongoing sensitization drive is geared towards young mothers and women in general to keep abreast of the importance of family planning.  Medical experts or researchers argue that family planning is a controversial issue which generates passions and principles on all sides. But it touches and is touched by so many other facets of human progress that it simply cannot be ignored.
One of the advantages of family planning, among a catalogue of advantages is that the lives of the children who are born would be immeasurably improved. Not only would child death rates fall perhaps by as much as a third, but the quality of child care, of health, nutrition and education, would inevitably rise as parents were able to invest more of their time, energy and money in smaller number of children.
Rapid population growth has been a major factor to the neglect to birth spacing. Evidence from the World Fertility Survey suggests that if women who do not want to become pregnant were empowered to exercise that choice then the rate of population growth in the developing world would fall by approximately 30%. “Meeting the existing demand for knowledge about birth planning would therefore also contribute to an improvement in per capita incomes and a reduction in environmental pressures,” a medical report revealed.