Inquiry into HANCI’s Adoption Activities Begins in Sierra Leone UPDATED

For more on this case and trafficking see Sierra Leone parents demand kids return and Sierra Leone Parents Seek Answers in Adoption Case [The Boston Globe 6/3/10 by Clarence Roy-Macaulay and Carley Petesch ]

Update: At least two original families gave testimony . Due to the “pathetic atmosphere at the Commission, the enquiry was adjourned to Tuesday 8 March 2011.”

Story 1: “Umu Jalloh whose twins a boy and a girl were alleged to have been illegally adopted by Help A Needy Child International (HANCI), collapsed yesterday at the government set Commission of enquiry sitting at the Miatta Conference Centre, Brookfields Freetown.

She collapsed while explaining because since her twins were taken away from her 13 years ago by HANCI, she has not set eyes on them or got information about the whereabouts of her twins Sento and Alhassan Koroma.”

“She maintained that they came in contact with HANCI through one Peter Lamin, Henry Abu, John Gbla and one Dr Kargbo. She further explained that while she was sitting at her house in Makeni breast feeding her twins, Mr. Lamin, Mr Gbla, Mr Abu and one Dr Kargbo met her and said they liked the twins and want to help them with their education.

Umu further stated that after the four people visited her thrice, she handed over the twins to them and they took them to the HANCI Orphanage, adding that after the twins were taken away from her she usually visited the Orphanage Home to see her children.

When I heard that the rebels were coming closer to us, “I went to collect my children at the Orphanage but Mr. Lamin asked me to leave the place. I burst into tears and went home”.”

Story 2: “Earlier on Kumba Mansaray, a widow and amputee explained that she lives in Makeni and she is a gardener. She explained that her husband was killed in Segbewema during the war. She said that she has three children but one Isata Bangura was taken away from her by HANCI adding that Mr Gbla and Mr Lamin from HANCI took her three years old daughter on the pretext that he was going to help her get quality education.

Kumba stated that Mr Lamin told her that because they are of the same tribe, they will not deceive her, and they took the child away.

She said they also told her that some of her friend’s children were already at the home learning and told her that she was free to visit the child anytime.

She further narrated that her child was at the Orphanage when the rebels entered Binkolo and she went to the orphanage and discovered that Mr Gbla and her daughter were no where to be found.”

Alleged Illegal Adoption Mother Collapses at HANCI Commission of Enquiry

[Awoko 3/4/11 by Abibatu Kamara]

Update 2: “The taking of oaths at the HANCI-SL/MAPS Justice Adeliza Showers Commission of Inquiry set up by President Ernest Bai Koroma to investigate whether parents had consented to the adoption of children by the non-governmental organization Help A Needy Child International Sierra Leone (HANCI-SL) or not has put the biological parents in disarray. The episode unfolded when one member of the audience asked the parents at the Miatta conference hall, Brookfields that they should testify under oath as to the truthfulness or not regarding the adoption of their children some years ago.

However, these parents were very timid to testify before the commission when called upon because of a statement allegedly made by one Abu Bakarr Kargbo alongside Inspector A. Scale that any parent that acknowledges consent of the adoption would be sent to Pademba Road prison. According to Abu Bakarr Kargbo, the parents in question were not among those he had tutored to speak before the commission and that if allowed to testify, they might make statements that would likely spoil their case.

A source told Concord Times that Inspector Scale, while interviewing the parents, threatened them with arrest should they work contrary to what they had detailed them to say before the commission. However, this act of travesty of justice as demonstrated by a custodian of the law and his accomplice Abu Bakarr, who claimed to have the backing of the powers-that-be, may not be to the knowledge of the learned commissioners as the whole drama took place outside the hall.

One of the parents uttered these words in tears: “Is this commission of inquiry set up only for specific parents? Is it these men that should determine who to testify before the commission and what they should say? How could a God-fearing person like me say something that is not correct, all I want to know is the whereabouts of my child”.

In another development, Adama Kamara now Adama Laura Celeste Kamara – currently living in Louisville, Kentucky in the United State of America – was one of the twenty-nine children said to have been adopted by HANCI-SL. Concord Times learnt that the girl, who was informed that her father, Sheik Alimamy Kamara – who had denied her by telling HANCI-SL that her father was bitten by a snake for her to be adopted – was visibly angry about the development when she recently visited the country.

Sheik Alimamy Kamara was said to have deliberately refused to testify before the commission despite being strongly admonished by her daughter to tell the truth to the commissioners before departing for the United States on 21 March, 2011. Adama, who spent more than a week in Makeni under strict security during her visit in the country, had the opportunity to speak to top government officials and other senior citizens in the country about her experience in the whole adoption saga.

It could be recalled that Sheik Kamara, who is now very reluctant to speak to the commission, was one of the leading parents clamouring for the government to set up the commission to properly investigate the saga due to the huge publicity and public interest it was generating. The question being asked by many people following the matter is whether the Justice Adeliza Showers Commission of Inquiry has the powers to subpoena Kamara to forcefully testify should he fail to voluntarily do so.

Investigations carried out by this medium revealed that most of the parents who had been faking either by fainting or crying at the commission have no children among the twenty-nine that went through the adoption process facilitated by HANCI-SL. Up till now there are no records to show whether those parents’ kids were actually adopted by HANCI or not.

It has now been discovered through investigations that Madam Humu Jalloh, who was said to have fainted while testifying before the commission and claiming that her twin kids – Alhassan and Sentho Jalloh – were adopted by HANCI and Madam Memunatu Turay – who also alleged that her son Yusufu Barrie was adopted by the organization, in actuality had no kids among the twenty-nine children that are now the subject of the commission’s investigation.

The names of the twenty-nine children that HANCI facilitated their adoption and their parents include – parents’ and town/village in bracket: Isatu Bangura (Kumba Mansaray, Makeni); Kadiatu Bangura (Kabba Bangura, Kamawonie); Isatu Conteh and Gbassay Conteh (Pa Santegie Conteh, Mathallay Village); Lovetta T. Conteh (Hellen Conteh, Makeni); Nenah Conteh (Sama Conteh, Kamasoko 2); Ferreh Dumbuya and Sentho Dumbuya (Pa Lansanna Dumbuya, Kamabuyelleh 3); Hassan Kamara (Yansampa Malanchor); Adama Kamara (Sheik Alimamy Kamara, Makeni); M’balu Kamara (Marie Jabbie, Makeni); Marie Kamara (Sheka Kamara; Kamafufain 4); Adama Kargbo and Mustapha Kargbo (Pa Brima Kargbo, Freetown); Sennie Kargbo and Sentho Kargbo (Gbaku Sorie Kargbo, Kagboray 5); Zainab Y. Kargbo (Kassim Kargbo, Makeni); Ramatu Kargbo (Aminata Kargbo, Makeni); Mabinty Bangura (Isatu Bangura, Freetown); Raymond Koroma and Andrew Koroma (Samuel Koroma, Makeni); Fatmata Koroma (Isatu Koroma, Makeni); Alhassan Kanu and Senna Kanu (Momoh Kanu, Mile 91); Mabinty Suma (Suliaman Suma, Makeni); Sulaiman Suma (Abdul Kargbo, Makeni); Isatu Samura (Kadiatu Samura, Kagboray 6); Abu Tholley (Alpha Tholley, Makeni); and Kadiatu Dumbuya (Lahai Dumbuya, Kamabunyelleh 7).

Sierra Leone As Commission of Inquiry Rejects Parents – Adopted Child Jets in

[Concord Times 4/8/11]