HIGHER EDUCATION MINISTER IN CONFLICT OF INTEREST
…MMTU, NEW BROOKFILDS HOTEL LAND CONFLICT
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Milton Margai Technical University is locked in a land dispute with the New Brookfields Hotel which claims to be the original owners of the MMTU Brookfields Campus property.
The land under contention on which the University sits is located at the Brookfields, the Hotel insists they are holders (lawful/ bona fide owners) of the said land.
Documents show that the Milton Margai Technical University is the rightful owner of the said land the hotel claims.
The University was established in 1963 only to train teachers in the junior secondary school as the Milton Margai Teachers College, it has gone through different stages to its present status as a Technical University.
The government of Sierra Leone leased the land where the Brookfield campus is located to the Brookfield Hotel Tourist Training Centre. This centre later upgraded to an institute and merged with MMCE and FTI, according to a survey plan signed in 1994 and given to the administration of the then-Polytechnic. Section 16 of the Polytechnic Act 2001 speaks directly to the Transfer of Asset to Council.
With respect to the provision in the Polytechnic Act of 2001 and the collective agreement, Brookfields campus has been under the Milton Margai College of Education and Technology, the properties of the then HTTC are transferred by law to the Polytechnic Council and not to the Ministry of Education nor the Ministry of Tourism.
The statement made by the supervisory Ministry, the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education to say MMTU is not the owner of the properties is unfortunate and seems difficult to comprehend when the provision in the Act of the Polytechnic is very clear on it.
The Government should swiftly intervene to resolve this matter before it goes out of control because the Ministry responsible has failed the students who expected a lot from them, but rather the permanent secretary threatened to kill them.
Property whether the State House or a hospital, a university like the MMTU is the property of Sierra Leoneans held in trust, it is unfortunate that the Ministry is trying so hard to give legitimacy to a privately owned business and shut down a learning institution, the action by the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education deeply undermines the effort of His Excellency the President to address Human Capital Development in the Country through education.
Not long ago, workers from the New Brookfields Hotel peddled stones on the few students who were on campus, the Campus Ag. Dean after being invited to the New England Police Station, was held for more than eight hours. It is shocking that the Supervisory Ministry did not offer any support and instead intimidated the students in response to the charge that she brought in students who they said flung stones against the hotel.
Despite this, they were unable to hold the hotel management accountable for the damages to the campus.
It is very unfortunate to see that the supervisory ministry stands to be against the Institution they are mandated to protect amidst the many complaints raised about intruders on the university land. To date, the ministry has not acknowledged receipt of the letters sent to them or even support in engaging their sister ministry to send witnesses to court for the current land cases the university has with people in the Goderich Campus.
It has been established the reason why the Minister of Technical and Higher Education is fighting tooth and nail to transfer the Brookfields Campus properties to the New Brookfields Hotel is that the hotel is owned by her father and his brothers (the Wuries).
The Minister has even instructed the Project Coordinator to stop the rehabilitation work under the BADEA project to create a way for her uncles to take over the land and even the buildings the BADEA project has rehabilitated. The project has a time frame but the Minister Dr. Ramatulai Wurie and Mr. Gilbert Cooper said, they don’t give a dime to the time. If the project is not completed on time, it won’t be the fault of the Contractor but the people His Excellency appointed, as Dr. Ramatulai Wurie said her interest is more important than government business.
The BADEA project funds are loans to the government of Sierra Leone. The Minister is fighting to take properties of the University to transfer them to her uncles’ business. The Permanent Secretary Mr. Cooper has emboldened the Minister because he claimed he has a link with the State House. So because of Mr. Cooper and Dr. Ramatulai Wurie, the government stands to lose the University land and buildings to the New Brookfields Hotel which is owned by the Wuries (Dr. Ramatulai Wurie’s parents).
Why did the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education who drafted the Universities Act 2021 name Brookfields campus as one of the Campuses of the Milton Margai Technical University if the property doesn’t belong to the University?
In our next edition, we will bring you more details and how Mr. Gilbert Cooper had reached the age of retirement for over four years but still in the same Ministry misbehaving, threatening to shoot students because of his relationship with His Excellency. Is he the only qualified person to be in that Ministry? Don’t we have other qualified Permanent Secretaries to bring new energy into the Ministry? You maintain one person in the same Ministry for over six years what is so special about Gilbert Cooper? Is he above the Civil Service Code that states the movement of Permanent Secretaries? He has retired long ago. Because he said he is the brother or nice of the President? oh, Salone.