By Alex Yomah
The glaring dramas at the Independent National Human Rights Commission (INCHR) continue to persist because the appointing powers are watching with no actions to curtail such ugly scenes.
Yesterday was another scene portraying how the official vehicle assigned to Commissioner Mohammed Fahnbulleh was barred from leaving the premises of the Commission.
Private security officers assigned at the Commission closed the main entrance in front of the embattled Commissioner thereby preventing him from leaving the compound in his assigned vehicle.
According to insiders’ account, the security officers acted on an order from the Chairperson of the Commission, Dempster Brown that whenever they saw Fahnbulleh’s assigned vehicle in the compound, said vehicle should not leave.
Based on the alleged order from the Chairperson especially with a strong worded statement, and due to fear of losing their jobs and standing in the way of the contending commissioners, the security only plan was to deflate the tires of the vehicle.
While they were forging their plan, the driver of Fahnbulleh who then eaves dropped the security officers’ conversation alerted his boss; something that got Fahnbulleh annoyed and he rushed down stairs in an attempt to drive out of the fence.
Commissioner Fahbulleh who was overly irritated by then met stiff resistance as the door of the compound was already shut.
According to some employees, the Chairperson acted rightly because since Fahnbulleh was aligned with a sexual harassment issue, he was told by the Chairperson to relinquish his position until he (Fahnbulleh) can exonerate himself from the sexual exploitation case but Fahnbulleh rejected the advice.
“The embattled Commissioner told the chairperson that he will not yield because the issue of sexual exploitation was the issue of ‘hear-say’ about four months ago,” our source maintained.
When contacted, Fahnbulleh expressed frustrations over the attitude of Chairman Brown towards his colleague Commissioners.
According to Fahnbulleh, since the Commissioners left the Senate and were told to return to handle their own matters, Cllr. Brown has been bent on opening other issues that intend to further erode the Commission.
He said, “If Cllr. Brown thinks, I did wrong, he needs to do the needful by writing the President to look into the matter, rather than belittling his fellow commissioners which is not good at all and that is what Commissioner Cllr. Brown is doing to us.”
In other development, another CSO wants Commissioner Fahnbulleh removed from the INCHR in lieu of his alleged sexual harassment and has called for his immediate dismissal.
Commissioner Fahnbulleh has been accused of persistent sexual harassment against female employees at the Commission, an allegation that he has since denied.
But the Citizens’ Action Network at the same time buttressed calls to President George M. Weah who professes to be a “feminist in chief” to set a good precedence by dismissing Commissioner Fahnbulleh from the INCHR which has statutory responsibility to address human rights issues in the country.
The group in a statement issued over the weekend, further stressed that it is appalled by the news, describing it as repugnant and unwholesome as well as a violation the Act establishing the Commission.
The statement added that Commissioner Fahnbulleh’s enjoyment of any semblance of impunity will set the wrong precedence for posterity while undermining the working of the INCHR, indicating that the Commission is not the institution that should harbour an individual with “tainted character.”
