By Oswald Hanciles, Freetown.
The BBC Focus on Africa and BBC World News reports on Wednesday, September 9, 2009, got it wrong about the number of the people involved in the boat accident that took place off the coast of Sierra Leone, between Shenge and Plantain Island: they reported that about 150 people were involved inside the boat when the accident took place; the Manifest (s) of the boat, named “Cheche”, which was handed over to the Deputy Minister of Transport and Aviation, Osmond Hanciles by Sierra Leone Naval officers based at Tombo, indicated that there were 251 adult passengers inside the boat, and this “excluded students and suckling infants”, as Mr. Hanciles explained to 98.1 FM radio when he was interviewed at about 5.00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at the naval base in Tombo.
Deputy Minister Osmond Hanciles was shocked when he was given two different manifests of the boat involved in the accident, “Cheche”, by Naval Lieutenant M.K. Suma, who had led the naval “Search and Rescue” (S & R) team for survivors.
The two manifests, wet and soggy, retrieved from the almost sunken boat by the naval team, had one legal Sierra Leone Maritime Administration (SLMA) document, which has just 41 passengers registered to travel in the Cheche. The other manifest, clearly illegal, written in an ordinary school exercise book, has the real number of passengers who were onboard the Cheche: 251 adult passengers. It was this illegal document that has the cargo of each passenger appended to his/her name.
Apparently, the commercial boats need to keep accurate records of passengers and cargo in their boats for their own record-keeping purposes, hence the different manifests. The cargo in Cheche was mainly five gallon-size plastic containers filled with palm oil (what is known locally as ‘batta’).
There were five hundred and sixteen (516) of these ‘battas’ on the boat, including forty three drums of palm oil, each containing forty four gallons of palm oil. This does not include dozens of groundnut and coconut bags; many cement bags, and fish in huge baskets. To state that the boat was overloaded would be an understatement – for it was a boat meant to have a maximum capacity of 125 people (one hundred and twenty five people), and less than half the cargo the boat had in its hold.
There was no mention in even the fake manifest of the estimated fifty or so students who had crammed the boat, as they planned on returning to Freetown from Kargboro and Shenge area to start their new academic year. There was no mention in the fake manifest of the many suckling babies tied to their mother’s backs, or, suckling from their mother’s breasts. Deputy Minister Hanciles learned that the boat owners don’t bother to include in their manifests children and students who don’t carry any cargo, because they have little value to them.
It appeared as if the Cheche, and all its hapless passengers, were on a journey of fate, according to Abdul M. Koroma, Chairman of the Artisanal Fishermen’s Union, who spoke with several of the survivors, after his union had organized a Search and Rescue Effort. Koroma said the routine date for the Cheche to travel from the Shenge area to Tombo would be every Sunday, so, it was puzzling why the boat had left on a Tuesday.
Also, according to Abdul, as soon as the boat departed from its last port, in Mofor, a passenger onboard, one “Sheik Mohamed”, an Islamic scholar, warned the captain of the Cheche to return to port, because his experience told him that a storm was brewing, and could get out of hand. The captain of the Cheche, one Sidi Bundu, refused to listen to the advice of Sheik Mohamed, who turned out to be one of the survivors of the accident.
Abdul M. Koroma said according to survivors on the Cheche, especially one David Hyde, who was the first to float on a makeshift raft of a batta and coconut bag to Shenge, as the boat started filling up with water, the passengers frenetically bailed out the water but when the storm intensified, they could no longer keep pace with the water gushing into the boat, and the waves heaving the boat violently, so, they panicked, and many jumped into the sea, while others were thrown overboard by the bobbing boat.
The accident was said to have taken place at about midday on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. News about the boat accident only reached the naval base in Tombo at about 9.00 p.m. that same day. There were different reports at what happened at that point in time when the people in Tombo, who were sure to have relatives and friends coming in from Kargboro area, heard of the boat accident, and grew panic-stricken.
Aruna K. Fofanah, who identified himself as “petty traders Chairman” in the Tombo area, said that when news of the accident got to them that Tuesday night, at about 8.00 p.m., they tried to contact the “harbor masters” in Tombo and Shenge, “but they were no where to be found" and they could not be contacted on their mobile phones.
Naval Lieutenant M.K. Suma said he was informed about the accident at 9.00 p.m. that Tuesday night, but, there was nothing they could do about it, because the “Inshore Fiberglass Boat” they have in the naval base was not equipped to take action at night. This small boat, with a maximum speed of 25 knots, which could carry a maximum of eight naval officers, would dangerously expose itself in trying to rescue drowning people at night, for according to Lt. Suma’s superior officer, Naval Captain B.S. Mansaray, who had rushed down from the Naval Headquarters in Murray Town, “drowning people are sure to cling to such a small boat, and capsize it”, and this could lead to everyone losing their lives.
Captain Mansaray said during daylight, they could control the panic of drowning people, and be more effective at saving lives, so the naval boat only operates during the day.
The Navy, according to Captain Mansaray, has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration (SLMA) to get engaged in just such “Search and Rescue” missions.
However, Captain Mansaray criticized the boat owners for not having communication sets in their boats, and taking on a lot of passengers with no life jackets, in clear violation of SLMA laws. “The accident took place at about 12 p.m. on Tuesday, if there was a communication set on board the boat, we could have rushed to save a lot of lives”, Captain Mansaray said.
Though some of the townspeople had told Deputy Minister Hanciles that the naval team only left Tombo at about 12 midday on Wednesday, a full twenty four hours after the accident, the SLAFU Chairman, Abdul M. Koroma, confirmed what was said by the Naval Commanding Officer in Tombo, Lt. M.K. Suma, that his team left Tombo for the S & R at 6.00 a.m. on Wednesday morning., and returned to meet the Deputy Minister Hanciles waiting for him at 6.00 p.m. on Wednesday evening.
It was after the naval boat had left that the SLAFU mobilized men, money, and a boat, which was led by Thomas F. Spencer, SLAFU’s National Coordinator; and SLAFU communications officers, Wudi Koroma and Sinnah Conteh. They left Tombo at 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
The Sierra Leone Maritime Administration (SLMDA) is the body empowered by law to guide government on the making of policies on maritime matters, and to ensure that maritime laws and rules are enforced. The SLMA’s “Monitoring Officer” in Tombo, Abdul Aziz Kamara, articulated the role of he SLMA as saving lives on sea routes, ensuring life jackets are used, ensuring that all boats have First Aid kits onboard, ensuring that there is adequate clean drinking water onboard all the boats, ensuring that all vessels are sea worthy and have engines in working order, with no holes at the bottom and ensuring that boats do not overload.
The theory that was articulated by SLMA officer Kamara aroused the anger of youth who crowded around the Deputy Minister, and, one of them, especially, one 24 year old accounting student of AMTECH business college in Freetown, Albert Williams, aggressively accused Abdul Aziz Kamara of having “compromised” his duties by allowing overloading in boats in the area, which could have caused the accident.
Defending himself from the increasingly testy youth, Kamara said there is only one SLMA Monitoring Officer based in Tombo, but, no SLMA officer in Kargboro, where the boat had come from. Feeling cornered by the interrogation of not only the Deputy Minister but also the angry youth, Abdul explained that “only last week”, he had had to stop the boat that got the accident, Cheche, from leaving the Tombo port, but, he was prevailed upon by one “Councilor Amos Kalokoh” (who is said to belong to none of the three leading parties, APC, SLPP or PMDC, but, an Independent) , who reasoned with Abdul Aziz Kamara that if they stick too much to rules, a lot of revenue would be lost, and the Local Government in the area won’t get adequate money for development.
The explanation of SLMA Monitor Abdul Aziz Kamara further inflamed the youth with Williams bluntly accusing Abdul Aziz Kamara of being responsible for the Cheche boat accident, and the loss of over a hundred lives, including the lives of Williams’ brothers, nephews, and in-laws. “It was not my fault!”, Abdul Aziz Kamara stridently defended himself, saying, “The councilor is an elder in this area, and I have to show respect to him”.
Mohamed Conteh, of the Voice of Islam, who said he had probably lost over sixteen relatives in the disaster including Musenta Conteh, 43; Burhan Kamara – Arabic Student at Arabic school in Shenge; Gibrilla Koroma, Unfa Koroma, Juliet Sannoh, Ishmael Conteh, Adamu Koroma, Musa Bendu, Karim Koroma, Salieu Will, Saidu Kallon and so on blamed the SLMA monitors for "perennially" turning a blind eye to overloaded boats in the area.
Aziz Kamara, going on the defense again, said he has had “prosecuted” several boat owners who he saw overloading their boats. When pressed to explain what he meant by “prosecuting”, he weaved and ducked, and explained that he would only take offenders to the police.
When asked what the police would do Kamara said the police would invariably just release “on bail” those he would have handed over to them.
Pressed to explain why no court action would be taken against those caught for overloading, the flustered Kamara, only reluctantly explained to the Deputy Minister, and all the crowd around him, “There is no law in our law books to prosecute boat owners who overload their boats”.
Abdul Aziz Kamara was unable to explain why there was no law to prosecute boat owners for overloading their boats and what law he invoked to have them arrested and handed over to the police.
At Tombo yesterday were also one British IMMAT officer, Lieutenant Rob, who introduced himself as the Maritime Adviser of the British military advisory team based in Freetown , called “IMMAT”. He was assisted by one U.S. Naval Lt. Abdulsalaam, an African-American, who was the medical officer at the scene ready for any medical emergency. The IMMAT officers had gone to Tombo ready to take care of the medical needs of survivors, and they had “dried rations” and “clean water” at the ready.
A helicopter from one of the commercial helicopter firms in Freetown is also helping in the S & R effort.
The Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration (SLMA), Philip Lukuly, and his deputy, Alhaji Wuroh Jalloh, are said to be closely monitoring the unfolding tragedy.
While some of the youth at Tombo vehemently called for tougher laws as deterrent to overloading in the commercial boats in the area, it was noted that no Parliamentarian or Local Government Councilor was seen around Tombo.
Deputy Minister Osmond Hanciles, climbing on a stool in the crowded wharf, appealed to the people in the area to avoid overloading commercial boats and endangering their lives. He said he was on a fact finding mission, and government would take a position on the matter, or, make a statement, when all the facts would be in their hand.
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