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January 30th, 2008 Dennis Nyandoro clean saturday
Harare - no shine in this city.
The Mayor of Freetown, His Lordship Winstanley Bankole Johnson is said to be at serious loggerheads with the monthly city-cleaning team, pioneered by the government. According to our Special Correspondent in Freetown, the relations between the Mayor and the team has deteriorated to the point where angry and insulting words were said to have been exchanged recently between the Mayor and the head of the government cleaning team, Minister of State in the office of the Vice-President, Mr. Leonard Balogun Koroma. COCORIOKO learnt that while residents of the city were delighted with the monthly cleaning exercise that has seen even President Ernest Koroma fold his sleeves and sweat himself out working to rid the city of filth, the Mayor was not at all happy with the crusade. The perpetual absence of the City Father from such an important and well-applauded civic national exercise become conspicuous and raised concern. Recently, the Mayor was questioned by All People Congress ( APC ) officials about his noticeable absence from the monthly cleaning exercises . During the process, he was said to have burst into anger , contending that it was the Freetown City Council which was entrusted with the responsibility of cleaning the city. He was then said to have delivered a tirade during which he made belittling and harsh comments about the head of the cleaning exercise, Mr. Logus Koroma, in his absence . The Mayor was however so irritated that he did not stop there and was said to have found a way of repeating the angry remarks directly to Logus.It is not known whether the Mayor repeated his tirade by telephone or had a face-to-face confrontation with the minister. This incident, which did not go down well with officials of the government , has brought serious friction between the Mayor and the cleaning team . One government source however told this newspaper that the monthly cleaning exercises will continue , despite the Mayor's objections. Our correspondent reports that Mayor Winstanley Johnson is gradually operating his office with a "Seige mentality " and is said to believe that people were out to get him. According to reports from other sources, the Mayor's relationship with the APC government has seen better days. The embattled Mayor is presently at the centre of another crises in which most of the councillors of the Freetown City Council have asked for his removal from office. cocorioko Newspaper Limited
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