THE PREROGATIVE OF MERCY COMMITTEE FACING MANY QUESTIONS
The whole issue surrounding the early release of Baimba Moi-foray alias LAC from Pademba road jail has caused serious embarrassment for Principal. The herbalist or magician was serving a 25 year jail term for killing a Disc Jockey seven years or so ago. He was set free by Principal towards the end of 2021 while his lawyers were still in the Court of Appeal fighting against his conviction on circumstantial evidence for murder.
The days following that release saw public outcry with people complaining that he should be behind bars for at least half his sentence. Now Principal has felt compelled to REVOKE his own pardon, meaning LAC should be re-arrested and dumped inside his former cell at Pademba road jail.
The State House press statement announcing the U-turn also talked about the setting up of a committee to investigate the circumstances by which Baimba Moi-foray came to benefit from such a pardon. We are now approaching a situation in which some really dirty linens are potentially going to be washed in public. We don’t know when this committee would begin work and how much time they have to conclude the task but we believe there are preliminary steps to take. For example:
1. All those in the so-called committee members that are likely to tamper with paperwork relating to the inclusion of LAC’s name on the document signed by Principal should be made to step aside immediately. We imagine that they are hard at work now trying to cover their tracks.
2. Let’s agree that the inquiry will be brief and open to the public. The media should be allowed to go there and report and it should be led by a judge. We are looking forward to prosecuting all those that may have caused Principal such embarrassment.
3. We should resist all calls to go far back into reviewing other cases in the recent or distant past. That will slow things down and we will not be able to determine a cut-off date without further controversy. The purpose of this inquiry is to draw a thick line under all other crooked inclusions in the list of people being freed by Principal. We are approaching Independence Day and another list is already being prepared.
4. We are sure all Principal saw was a piece of paper requiring his signature. Take this affair and the fake receipts saga and all you can do is feel sorry for Principal that he hasn’t surrounded himself with TRULY HONEST people. We will stop feeling sorry for him if after this particular embarrassment he continues to keep these people in their jobs. We will hold him personally responsible next time.
MAYOR SHOUTS ‘TRANSFORM FREETOWN’ WHILE NEGLECTING ST. JOHN
Our Mayor is all over social media smiling and telling the world she was busy TRANSFORMING FREETOWN. Those who spend all their time on social media or those abroad are probably believing her messages and convincing themselves that Freetown was now a changed place under Mayor KEMOKAI. We know the task of TRANSFORMING FREETOWN is not an easy one and we wonder why she is trying to tell people that she has performed a miracle in the last three and half years.
Anyway, we have had to live with this mess in the picture at St. John which is a major junction in Freetown. It’s been like this for more than a year. From time to time we see young people hired by the SLRA trying to clean up but we quickly return to this mess. The Mayor drives through this area many times to and from work.
We didn’t want to turn people off because we would have taken pictures of people selling bread next to this mess. The Mayor’s agents are almost certainly collecting market dues from them.
Mayor KEMOKAI can sing TRANSFORM FREETOWN as much as she wants but there are many parts of Freetown facing the same challenges we have highlighted here.
Meanwhile we are still analyzing the Mayor’s recent outing on Voice of America.
FROM SONKOH SONKOH TO AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS
And it came to pass that King Messi went to a meeting of football stakeholders at the stadium one day and told them that the game had descended into what he called SONKOH SONKOH. We understand this to mean a situation of lawlessness and total lack of direction. He didn’t mention his own role in creating the sonkoh sonkoh and his inability to control the sonkoh sonkoh.
It was King Messie who appointed the High Priest of all the sonkoh sonkoh in the affairs of the SLFA. That’s Pope John Paul. He spent all his time in that ministry dividing members of the so-called football family along the lines of WHITE and BLACK Sierra Leoneans.
Johansen was another disaster in office but the problems of the SLFA were compounded by a minister taking over things as basic as selling tickets at the gates during international matches.
Fast forward to just THREE short years since King Messi left office and Sierra Leone is among the elite football nations in Africa playing in Cameroon. Before that the national league is running with the government injecting serious cash to help the young ones realize their talents. Some players from our local league are now plying their trade in European capitals. King Messi is busy tweeting daily in praise of Leone Stars. All your sonkoh sonkoh is gone sir.
King Messi avoids all national events but he is always the first to congratulate Leone Stars after football matches. He doesn’t even wait to be invited to do so.
By the way, we call on State House to send the King’s letter inviting him to this year’s Independence Day celebrations right now. Three months is good time for him to receive it in his Makeni fortress. See you soon sir, Chairman and Leader for LIFE.
WHERE IS OUR OWN DESMOND TUTU INTHIS COUNTRY?
We always talk about Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid struggle down south. Yes he was the man who galvanized the African people to fight against white minority rule but there were many other powerful people who played their parts in no small measure to bring down apartheid. It’s a long list but Desmond Tutu ranks high on the list. The former Anglican Bishop who just died fought from the pulpit in Cape Town and across the world by means of many speaking engagements.
He won the Nobel Peace prize in recognition of that effort. So we ask today whether we have any Desmond Tutu in this country and we couldn’t care less whether they were Clergymen, University lecturers, Farmers or Civil Society Activists or Journalists. All we ask for are men and women who are ready to stand up for the nation even in the face of great personal danger like that faced by Desmond Tutu and others at the hands of the apartheid regime.
We believe there are good people in this country but the fact that we have allowed things to go so bad without standing up leaves us without any option but to conclude that we still have a long road to go. The overwhelming concentration on power and money and all they bring – big houses on the hills above Freetown and in the peninsula, expensive cars, frequent overseas travel and the best girls in town are the principal reasons why many have collapsed into cowardly silence. In most cases when journalists highlight certain anomalies in society they are condemned by those who ought to know better
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