Members of the Malen Affected Land Owners and Users Association in Pujehun district are now facing arbitrary harassment and criminalization. This is due to the fact that members of MALOA recently issued a petition signed by 1,475 members objecting to the certification of SOCFIN by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm oil. Maloa argues therein that the RSPO Auditor lacked independence from the company and therefore assessed many issues wrongly in its report.
Maloa has for over a decade been aggrieved about the fact some land owners did not lease their land willingly to SOCFIN, and that their local traditional chiefs were appointed solely by Paramount Chief BVS Kebbie instead of going through electoral processes.
Members also mentioned that they are always prevented to meet in the chiefdom .While the RSPO Auditor, SCS Global Services has mentioned those issues in their report, they nevertheless certified the company in total contradiction to the RSPO criteria assuming without thorough engagement, that only a handful of people belong to Maloa.
Since the petition was made available to the public, Maloa members and signatories of the petition have seen their freedom of expression threatened. Two petitioners have been summoned to the local court by the town chief of Hinnai- Imurana Koroma and another person was called by the Police for incitement.
Further sources revealed that chiefs who signed the petition would lose their positions.
