Former Vice President of Sierra Leone, Alhaji Sam Sumana has described his hometown, Kono district as the Isreal of the Middle East.

He made the analogy on Friday 10th March 2023 as he reunited with a woman whom she described as her sister, Diana Konomanyi, former Minister of Lands.

The reunification meeting attracted hundreds of indigenes and non-Kono indigenes from the Kono district in Freetown.

Implicitly, the metaphoric comparison of Kono to that of Israel in the Middle East is a manifestation of how strategic the district is for the upcoming 2023 elections.

However, for a small country, Israel holds a place of great importance in the Middle East. Israel has a technologically advanced market economy with cut diamonds, high-technology equipment, and pharmaceuticals among its major exports. The country is very highly developed in terms of life expectancy, education, per capita income, and other human development index indicators.

“We begged you for forgiveness for all the pains we put you through, for creating divisions amongst you, for stoning one another, for not greeting each other, for making others ignore to attend to the funerals of other fallen members,” he pleaded on behalf of the APC Kono stakeholders.

Some key stakeholders from the APC Ward Executives, Constituency chairmen, and affiliated groups in Kono expressed their dissatisfaction over the marginalization of their APC Kono Stakeholders during the just concluded 2023 APC delegates Conference.

The former Vice President called for the need to nationalize the APC party across the country. He prayed for those that are not seeing to see, and the deaf to hear. He believes that the real story and deal lie in their hands. If they got it wrong, they will pay the price.

He encouraged all to be strong and believe in what they stand for as Unity is strength. He admonished his Kono people that whatever has happened yesterday they should put it behind their backs. He assures the Kono people that he has got their message.