By Lemuella Tarawallie
The Deputy Speaker of the Sixth Parliament, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, said yesterday in the well of parliament that, “Orange-Sierra Leone is still cheating the people”.
He noted that, in relation to the pronouncement he made in the well of parliament last Thursday, he realised that by Sunday 3 November 2024, Orange-Sierra Leone had reduced its tariff by 1% which meant that the mobile phone company had been exhorting the people of Sierra Leone. He continued that, as Members of Parliament, they must look at it in the interest of the people of Sierra Leone.
It could be recalled that while presiding over last Thursday’s proceedings in the well of parliament, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) proposed that Parliament should constitute a-six-man committee that would summon Orange-Sierra Leone for its exorbitant charges and price differentials.
He had noted that the proposed six-man committee would summon Orange-SL to tell the House why there was price differential in the same service that Africell-Sierra Leone and Qcell were also offering.
“In this parliament, we required for a Closed-User Group network from both Africell and Orange and it would surprise Members of Parliament to know that Africell-SL charged Parliament Le17 whilst Orange–SL charged Le50 for the same service. Parliament negotiated to the point that Orange-SL agreed that they would only provide the services to Parliament at Le34 which is twice the price of what Africell is charging”, Hon. Tawa Conteh had explained.
Hon. Aaron Aurna Koroma, of the All People’s Congress (APC), raised the issue of exorbitant charges for mobile phone services to draw the attention of the leadership of the Sierra Leone Consumer Protection Agency that was in the House of Parliament for ratification.