LARA TAYLOR PEARCE GOES BEFORE A TRIBUNAL
The panel of judges is in place and the nation is waiting to hear the case against Lara Taylor-Pearce and her colleague from Audit Service Sierra Leone. They were both suspended from office by Principal. We don’t have the real details of the case against them but we’ve been told of something akin to professional misconduct but as usual we have to be careful at this stage when lawyers have entered the field of play on both sides.
There’s no indication how long this tribunal would last. Depending on how frequently the panel meets and the fact that at least one of the judges has other jobs to do in his court, the tribunal should complete its job pretty soon and present the report to Principal. At this point we would expect to be able to read their report and then see their recommendations being fully implemented in the best interest of this Land that We Love.
Suddenly things have gone quiet around this issue. All those organizations and individuals that issued press statements condemning the government for laying fingers on Lara have gone quiet. Some have in fact moved on to other issues. It’s now left with Lara and her lawyers to fight it out against the state at that tribunal. Once the report is published, the debate will begin all over again. We should then be able to assess if people have moved from their entrenched positions.
The judiciary takes a lot of beating on social media about bias and all that but we have good reason to believe that justice will be done. We wish all those involved in this tribunal the very best. Let the law take its course.
NEW COVID 19 CASES FROM ACROSS THE BORDER
For the first time in many weeks, Sierra Leone reported FIFTEEN new cases of COVID 19. The daily report told us they were all ‘inbound passengers’ from the neighboring republic of Guinea. On that day the republic of Guinea reported zero cases but 15 people who entered our country through our common border tested positive. That tells us zero tests are done on the other side of that border and we should be extremely careful how we let people in. In fact, how do we know that two or three other people in that group did not find their way into our border towns on that same day thus starting the dreaded community spread?
First of all we want to thank NaCOVERC for successfully tracking down these cases. We believe now is the time to follow their trail and see if they have contacts that should we take into quarantine.
We are entering the festive season and people are going to be wild. They are going to refuse all measures aimed at limiting the extent to which they can sing and dance on beaches and other entertainment spots. NaCOVERC comes across as an organization that will be too timid to act by reinstating social distancing, mask wearing and closing down certain public spaces. These are measures we really hate but in the interest of public health we should be ready to do anything.
By the way, we now have at least one case of the new OMICRON variant in this country, again from an INBOUND passenger from Nigeria. This is getting serious. If we are not careful, we could soon return to the RED LIST.
PARTY DELEGATES HAVE LOST THE TRUST OF THEIR PEOPLE
Following the recent election of the leader of the women’s wing of the SLPP, there were cries that the processes leading to the actual voting at CATCO HALL in Freetown were rigged against the incumbent, Fatmata Sawaneh.
There is nobody observing the political scene in this country who didn’t know that Sawaneh would be defeated no matter when or where that election was conducted. She may have her own issues, and she shouldn’t pretend she doesn’t know that deep down but she lost the post because of two factors:
1. Some of those who saw their names on the list of delegates knew they had no business being delegates. They were simply hired assassins put there to get Fatmata Sawaneh out of that position. They duly delivered in grand style and have either returned to Europe and America or are back in their communities waiting for the other demolition job in the next two weeks.
2. We don’t have any evidence of the second factor but we will not dismiss the belief in the SLPP camp that a good number of delegates were bribed to throw Sawaneh out. There are varying amounts of money that people say came from on high for the delegates. The example we saw in the last Sierra Leone Football Association leadership election convinces us that whether in football or politics, delegates have the same attitude and can be very shameless about it.
Sawaneh supporters have been complaining all over social media. They blame the queen for masterminding the defeat of their candidate. That may well be the case but Sawaneh should look inwards a bit once she enters her bedroom and ask herself where things went wrong with her campaign apart from blaming the queen. It’s always important to do that.
BO BREEZE BLOWING OVER PREMIER LEAGUE CLUBS
The Bo Rangers team that will go into the second round of the Sierra Leone Premier League in January is looking very much like the home-based national side. About six star players from other clubs have suddenly turned up at the Bo Rangers training ground singing the club’s national anthem.
So we have a guy called Malian from Wusum Stars in King Messi’s SEAT of POWER. There’s Yeami Dunia from arch-rival East End Lions who simply woke up one morning and tore up whatever contract he had with his club and went over to sweet Bo. It’s almost as if Yeami Dunia was looking for some excuse to leave when one landed on his doorstep as a fan of EE Lions challenged him on the streets following the poor display of their clubs in the penultimate matches of the league which resulted in them surrendering their lead to Babadi Kamara’s Bo Rangers.
Those things happen all the time, physically or online, even in the big leagues of Europe. We expected EE Lions to take serious action against that fan but why that translates into a reason for Yeami to quit baffles us. Bo Rangers should expect him to be on the move again if their fans get on his back for one reason or the other. Bo Ranger also moved to the shopping center otherwise known as Central Parade to pick up star man Kassim Turay and that was after doing the same to their neighbors Kamboi Eagles with Ibrahim Turay or IB Computer also going south. For good measure we should report that even relegation-threatened Mighty Blackpool lost the best they had in this Bo Rangers tornado swoop.
The transfer window is probably not a good thing for other Premier League big boys. The stage is set and we’ll see how the competition for places in the team plays out in Sweet Bo.
There’s still one gap in the Bo Rangers defence. Besides taking those easily predictable long throws, their main defender is now tired, prone to error, makes bad decisions and has no pace. Please don’t take what we are about to say with any seriousness but we think Bo should now go and get the man in that same position at RSLAF. We will not be there to witness that fight so we are not hit by stray bullets but we hope the magnet around Bo Rangers is capable of bringing that guy to the Bo stadium.
Here’s our parting shot: signing Galacticos is one thing, weaving them into a mighty killing machine while keeping all of them happy can be very difficult, almost impossible. We will talk about those who were on the ground at the start of the Babadi revolution later but by the look of things the Executive Chairman’s third objective in that club – winning the league for the first time in their history could be achieved in 2022.
Copyright © Politico Online 10/12/21
