{"id":346167,"date":"2017-08-19T10:42:10","date_gmt":"2017-08-19T10:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=346167"},"modified":"2017-08-19T10:42:10","modified_gmt":"2017-08-19T10:42:10","slug":"govt-reaction-to-sierra-leone-disaster-slow-and-uninspiring-ablakwa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=346167","title":{"rendered":"Gov&#8217;t reaction to Sierra Leone disaster slow and uninspiring &#8211; Ablakwa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu and Minority Ranking Member on Foreign Affairs has described government&#8217;s \u00a0response to Sierra Leone in their mudslide and flooding disaster as \u201cpoor, slow and uninspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the country has a proud history of supporting countries in time of distress and said government&#8217;s \u00a0\u201cfeet dragging is unimpressive and inconsistent. We\u2019ve always been leaders, not followers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Okudjeto said this at the maiden Volta Parliamentary outreach organized by the Governance Department of the Evangelical Presbyterian University in Ho.<\/p>\n<p>He said government&#8217;s request for the citizenry to support with clothing and other items was \u2018lifeless\u2019 and that it must show leadership by sending government\u2019s support first before appealing to the citizenry.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Okudjeto said by now, military personnel should have been sent on a rescue mission and not the issuance of statements, which he said, \u201coffered no hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 400 people have been confirmed dead and about 600 missing after a mudslide and flooding in Sierra Leone\u2019s capital, Freetown on Monday. Thousands have also been displaced.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-344942\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Sierra-Leone-mudslides.jpg\" alt=\"sierra-leone-mudslides\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The government on Friday sent relief items, comprising food, medicines, clothing, and logistics to\u00a0the disaster-stricken country. The relief items\u00a0are estimated to cost $1 million.<\/p>\n<p>The government set up a relief\u00a0centre\u00a0at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive donations from the public.<\/p>\n<p>Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia will also visit Sierra Leone on today [Saturday] to commiserate with its citizens after the mudslide and flooding disaster.<\/p>\n<p>The country is now facing a humanitarian crisis due\u00a0to risk to public health from waterborne diseases such as cholera.<\/p>\n<p>Serria Leone President, Ernest Koroma,\u00a0when he visited the disaster stricken area, called on the international community to provide \u201curgent support\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: GNA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu and Minority Ranking Member on Foreign Affairs has described government&#8217;s \u00a0response to Sierra Leone in their mudslide and flooding disaster as \u201cpoor, slow and uninspiring.\u201d He said the country has a proud history of supporting countries in time of distress and said government&#8217;s \u00a0\u201cfeet dragging is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,10,11],"tags":[3,903,5142],"class_list":["post-346167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-slider-1","category-top-stories","tag-ghana-news","tag-samuel-okudzeto-ablakwa","tag-sierra-leone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=346167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=346167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=346167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=346167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}