By: Julius Konton
The Assistant Minister of Mines at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Emmanuel T.T. Swen has described as the buying of public sentiments recent protest at the President’s House.
Minister Swen who is said to be at the center of a diamond saga due to his recent impartial verdict following a comprehensive investigation maintained that he did nothing wrong in rendering his Final decision into the case relative to the direct ownership of the recently found diamond in Smith Town, Gbarpolu County.
His statement was in reaction to a protest by some group of citizens who claimed to hail from Gbarpolu County, alleging that they want their diamond back.
However, Swen wondered how can a County claim resources that directly belongs to the Country terming their protest as unfortunate and politically motivated.
Despite the protest, Mr. Swen stated that he is and will not be carry away by such because it has now become a new normal where people will stage unnecessary protests when they want to bend their way from following the real process.
“Let’s make use of the law and try to protect our peace”, he added.
The Assistant Mines and Energy Minister at the same time appreciates and welcomes the President’s concern into the matter including the Justice Ministry aimed at looking into the case in order to bring it to its logical conclusion.
The protest he further stated was unfortunate especially at a time when the both parties went at the Supreme Court and the court threw the case out.
” Our lawyers and their lawyers including the diamond association officials were all present at the court and the court threw the case out, the following day, they put people in buses and went at the President’s place to protest just to buy public sentiments, this is unfair, he added.
Moreover, he argued that “why go protest when you have your lawyers still pushing the case”, the aggrieved party lawyers he disclosed send him a communication objecting to his ruling a day after the court’s ruling and the same time they were protesting, this is a scare game and I will not buy into it”, he noted.
He further indicated that he met the caucus of the County who wanted to see the need to address the issue and to know how and why he took the decision, ” I told them that I took the decision based on the available and necessary information and evidence provided to me and my verdict was impartial” he noted.
” What I did was administrative, the court has the authority to reverse any decision, and I am a law-abiding citizen, and is and will be willing at any time to submit myself to any investigation”, he told reporters.
Mr. Swen challenged the aggrieved party if they are sure that they have merit to the case, let them wait for their lawyer instead of buying unfortunate public sentiments.
“What I can say of their protest and judgment given is that they don’t have merit into the case and that’s why they want to create public sentiments”, he pointed out.
According to him, what he did was right and his conscience is very clear.
Unlike before, the aggrieved party signed a resolution along with their lawmaker stating that the diamond was not from Ma Fatu’s claim but rather from another claim that was not a part of the previous investigation.
According to him, the previous investigation did not show a third party as such, he ruled then based upon the two parties that were available.
” I am a young Man, I aspire for greater things in this Country and this is my first major national duty to serve as Assistant Minister and I will not rob myself of this opportunity, I will always do what is right and I will stand on the side of my conscience”, Mr. Swen told journalists.
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