COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY MOVE INTO THE SECOND STAGE
Biobele and colleagues have delivered on their mandate and submitted their report to Principal. Those of us who are not members of the government have not seen the full report but we are hearing very interesting things about what the judges were able to find out about how King Messi and his people administered our country for close to ELEVEN years. Like the TRC report, we will forever be reading the reports from the three commissions and reminding ourselves of what happened to post-war Sierra Leone, especially after Pa Kabbah.
After all the controversy - refusal by some of those invited to testify and some shocking displays by some lawyers on behalf of some of those indicted now, the Commissions of Inquiry are complete. The next stage now is for the government of Principal to consider the findings and produce a WHITE PAPER setting out the actions they intend to take and how. We will address what comes after that when the time is nigh. For now, as Sierra Leoneans, these are some of the issues we are thinking about.
1. What can we do to stop those running our country now falling into the same corruption trap and indeed all other governments going forward? That is very important.
2. Some Sierra Leoneans who either benefitted directly or indirectly from the old system are complaining. They want the world to believe there was no corruption in the last government and that all what is happening now is an attempt to destroy the opposition. All we can say is that WE ARE SIERRA LEONEANS AND WE LIVED THROUGH KING MESSI’S GOVERNMENT INSIDE SIERRA LEONE.
3. We warn Principal and his people that the good people of Sierra Leone will not accept any political deals to influence what happens to this report. We paid huge money for this report and so we ask for the recommendations to be implemented in our best interest.
4. Can those who stole Biobele’s computer return it to the Learned Nigerian Judge now? He has completed his job in time and may be looking forward now to going home to join his family. There will be no criminal charges. All we want is the lap top. Thanks.
5. Principal hopes this will be the last of the Commissions of Inquiry in Sierra Leone. We doubt that very much. There may be frivolous and vengeful ones in the future. What we should do now is to make it impossible for them to find any wrongdoing against the current ruling class. And the only way to achieve that is to engage in good governance.
NO CORONAVIRUS CASE FOR NOW BUT LET’S TAKE CARE OF OUR LAND BORDERS
Thank God there is no case to report in Sierra Leone as we write. Principal says it’s a matter of WHEN not IF it will land in this country. It’s a nice way for people like him to position themselves so that they do not give the people false hope that could be dashed by just ONE case. We are very happy that the airport is down. The consequences of that shut down on our economy is huge and will be felt for a good few years but we should be prepared to take that than to have to bury hundreds or even thousands of our countrymen like we did in Ebola days.
Our main concern now is our land borders. Those borders are still open to our neighbors and Sierra Leoneans returning home from trade or family visits. Our two neighbors are now infected on a low scale but it was a single Ebola case that came through our eastern border and destroyed so many lives in this country. We find it extremely difficult to ask for the closure of our borders with Guinea and Liberia because their cases are below the threshold we set but we want to tell the authorities that the only way the CORONNAVIRUS will enter this country now is through those borders and we will hold those who through corruption or negligence make that possible, personally responsible. We are glad that soldiers have been deployed to those borders. We trust them.
Let’s keep the CORONAVIRUS out of this country and congratulate ourselves in the end.
THE GHOST OF MUSTAPHA IS STILL WAITING FOR THE INQUEST.
The nation was promised an inquest into how a humble Sierra Leonean died in a so-called fire incident at his home in Freetown not so long ago. We have not heard anything about the promised inquest since the President of PMDC was thrown out of office within a few weeks of being appointed Attorney General.
Can Principal himself now tell this nation something about this promised inquest please? Pretending as if everything is fine with the Mustapha family and that they now have closure on that issue is false. That we will drop our comments on this issue after a few editions is equally false.
We want Principal to tell us whether this was an example of the overzealousness of the President of PMDC or a determination by his government to establish the truth behind that so-called fire incident on that fateful day.
The inquest must go on for the following reasons:
1. Let the family of the late man get closure on this issue. As long as that so-called fire incident is considered suspicious there will be continuous cry for justice.
2. The people of Sierra Leone who have been following this case with interest want to be sure there were no death squads going around this country killing people. We must investigate this to send a clear message that there is no hiding place for killers.
3. If that Coroner’s inquest confirms what people suspected all these years, then we will expect trials and convictions for murder, arson and other offences. Besides they call this New Direction and TALK en DO. You have talked about the inquest, now go ahead and do it.
4. The longer we delay this inquest the more time we provide for those who know they did something to flee the country or take further steps to conceal their crimes. And those steps may include doing something to people who knew something.
5. The last time we saw a Coroner’s inquest in this country was in the case of journalist Harry Yansaneh. Recommendations were made by the Coroner for some people to be prosecuted. As soon as the mother of those people switched to the ruling party the matter died and the Coroner is still recovering from the series of administrative attacks he suffered. Here is an opportunity to do another inquest and implement its findings. We are a democracy.
WHAT’S THE LATEST ON THOSE YELLOW CARD BOYS OF JENDEMA?
Hello ACC, where are those people you arrested from the border town of Jendema for allegedly extorting cash from two white guys? After the initial noise surrounding you sending in your people to arrest the health workers things have just gone quiet. Do you have a case against them? Let them have their day in court now.
We don’t want to push too deep into this matter for legal reasons but we make bold to say that if Afro Boy sends his guys land in our satellite hospitals and Ola During hospital in particular they will come back with a bag full of health workers demanding money from their patients for services fully covered by the state.
Let them also go along the road to Guinea and see what they will get. The people are tired with all types of corruption. Afro Boy has done very well with the really big guys who have been stealing from their grandchildren, now let him chase the little crooks. We say so because the little crooks have daily contact with the people and that gives their own brand of corruption a very sharp edge that can kill the people. Long live the ACC!
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