News

Regional experts have ended a two-day meeting in Accra, Ghana aimed at reviewing the revised roadmap for the ECOWAS single currency, the ECO, which involves the creation of a second currency by six west African countries by 2015.
The countries are Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria agreed to create a second currency after the CFA used by all but one of the French-speaking countries in the region. This will see the region using two parallel currencies until 2020 when a single currency is expected to come into being.

By Steven Bockarie Mansaray in Kabala and Mathew Kanu in Makeni 

The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) has condemned “the unfair treatment and judicial interference” in the criminal libel case against the managing editor of the daily Independent Observer newspaper, Jonathan Leigh.

In a press release issued yesterday after a general meeting, SLAJ said that when he made his initial appearance before Magistrate Seray-Wurie “Jonathan Leigh was granted 50 million Leones bail to be fulfilled by 2 sureties, who can be identified by their national I.D. Card, driver’s license, or passport.”

Officials of the Rodney Michael campaign for the leadership of the Sierra Leone Football Association yesterday met President Ernest Bai Koroma at State House to register their grievances against the decision of the Normalisation Committee to disqualify leading contender Rodney Michael and five other candidates allied to his campaign.

By Septimus Senessie in Kono

Paramount Chief Paul Gabba Saquee V of Tankoro Chiefdom has issued an unprecedentedly stern warning to OCTEA Diamond Group (Koidu Limited) against “heavy and regular stone-blasting” in his chiefdom.

The chief was speaking at a well-attended stakeholders’ meeting with the mining company and the company’s Affected Property Owners Association (APOA) at the chiefdom court Barray in Koidu.

By Septimus Senessie in Kono.

The National Kono Students’ Union (KONSU) have launched their 2013 summer school lessons at the Koidu City hall, Kono district.

By Aminata Phidelia Allie

Sierra Leone has finally been shown the door out of the reality show, Big Brother Africa: The Chase.

The second and last Sierra Leonean contestant, Michael Bassey, arrived in the country two weeks after his co-contender, Bolt had been bolted out.

Speaking at his homecoming press conference in Freetown, Bassey said his eviction didn’t come as surprise as “I knew it and was braced for it”. He said he had somehow dreamt about it but “it’s hard to explain”.