By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay & Hajaratu Kalokoh
The widow of former president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah says she and her husband suffered unimaginably after his retirement in 2007.
Isatu Kabbah aka IJ told Politico that her husband waited for two years to receive his retirement benefits.
“His entitlements were supposed to be given to him in the next month or so [after retirement] but we didn’t get it until after two years. And even the security personnel that were attached to us, a lot of them were withdrawn without even telling us. We didn’t make any hue and cry over it” Mrs Kabbah said.
She went on: “We were supposed to have full 30 bodyguards… after a year or two 90% of those guards were withdrawn but they never replaced them like they are doing now for [former] president Koroma. For us no! Nobody replaced them”.
IJ said that police officers attached to former president Kabbah did not get their monthly allowances and were never promoted. “Not single police officer that was attached to us got promoted” she said.
She said the “hue and cry” over the rotation of the bodyguards of the former president “is just politics”.
Her statement comes after former president Koroma complained against the rotation of his security details.
In a letter to the Inspector General of Police by his senior assistant, Koroma rejected the “abrupt transfer and replacement” of his state security details, leaving him without guards. He said 16 of his 18 guards were “summarily disarmed without recourse” to him.
Speaking to journalists yesterday, Minister of Information Mohamed Rahman Swaray said his government was committed to respecting the constitution which guarantees the security of former statesmen. He assured that the government would provide former president Koroma the necessary security arrangements.
“As a government we have availed him the necessary security that is required,” Swaray said.
On why they had not consulted the former president before the change, Swaray said “he did not need to be consulted. This was a routine security exercise that is done periodically. In this case the police waited for a year to change his security”.
The Minister of Information said he hoped their statement brought the curtain down on the controversy. Despite his hopes, this latest situation has heightened the political tension between opposition All Peoples Party and the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party between whom there has been no love lost.
Government says despite the tension, they are committed to providing the adequate security that Koroma needs as a former head of state.
“This redeployment is necessary for the all-round development of the personnel involved and for a watertight security for the former President and his family,” Swaray assured.
The officers replaced include those at Koroma’s home in Freetown, Makeni and his wife’s hometown of Kono.
© 2019 Politico Online
