Feature

By Abdul Tejan-Cole and James A. Goldston 

For some, the flight of President Omar al-Bashir from a military airfield in South Africa on Monday morning was another blow to the prestige of the International Criminal Court, which has indicted the Sudanese leader for mass atrocities in Darfur. Al-Bashir’s ignominious departure came even as a South African judge was hearing arguments on whether the government was legally obliged to arrest him and hand him over to the ICC.

By Judd-Leonard Okafor

Intro: Vaccination programmes nationwide could come under pressure when present cash-backed funding runs out. Experts have predicted chaos for the health system in that event. Concern has prompted the setting up of a task force to consider private-sector involvement to finance Nigeria’s vaccine requirement.

Interviewee: Dr Ben Anyene, Microbiologist, Physician, and Public Health consultant for the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) responsible for immunisation programmes nationwide.

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

By Mustapha Kamara Jnr

The original idea about prison was a place meant to punish offenders by seizing their freedom for a short or a very long time depending on the crime and its corresponding punishment.

By Kemo Cham 

I chose the headline for this piece with mixed feeling.

On the one hand, I believe that single act by the South African government to allow Sudanese President Umar Al Bachir to leave their territory, despite a court order forbidden him to do so, has denied hundreds of thousands of people justice. On the other hand, I have misgivings about the constitution of the very court, [the International Criminal Court (ICC)] from which this whole embarrassing episode originated.

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

The immigration office on Rawdon Street in the heartland of the nation’s capital, Freetown, is almost empty. Labourers and cleaners are busy cleaning the floor and cobwebbing the wall in preparation for the movement to the new office.

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

The newly appointed counsel for the plaintiff in the ongoing trial on the sacking of Samuel Sam-Sumana as Vice President, Charles Francis Margai, has accused the appointed Vice President of treating the court with disrespect.

Margai said this during his first appearance at the Supreme Court after his appointment to replace James Blyden Jenkins-Johnston as lead counsel for the plaintiff. He said appointed VP Victor Foh, who is the 2^nd defendant in the matter, has failed to appear since commencement of the hearing.