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Opposition leader and presidential candidate for the Sierra Leone Peoples Party has threatened to expose President Ernest Bai Koroma and members of his government’s “shady deals” in and outside the country if they continue to “harass” them “unfairly”.

He was responding to allegations that he siphoned hundreds of thousands of US dollars when he was deputy military leader of Sierra Leone, monies that were accrued from the sale of Sierra Leonean passports in Hong Kong.  He accused the government of peddling the allegations.

Official documents leaked to the press have raised a lot of questions over the main opposition challenger for November’s presidential election. They allege that Julius Maada Bio, when he was Deputy head of state in the National Provisional Ruling Council military junta, siphoned into his private bank accounts monies made from the sale of Sierra Leonean passports to Hong Kong citizens who wanted to leave the country ahead of its return to China. He has been speaking to Politico. 

Alas the flashpoint failed to flash. The politically volatile district of Kono did not spark during the recent political rally there by the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party. This is a place where political skirmishes have been commonplace especially in the last nearly four years dating back to the local council elections in 2008 with the opposition mostly at the receiving end.

The head of the Anti-Corruption Commission, Joseph Kamara has told Politico that “significant evidence” has been gathered in the matter brought about in the wake of an Aljazeera television documentary on corruption in the country’s timber industry, dubbed locally as “Timbergate”.

Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has sought to clarify a statement she made in an interview with a British newspaper about gays and lesbians in her country. The following statement was posted yesterday on the website of the Executive Mansion of Liberia:

Like with many blunders that are made in Sierra Leone no one has been reprimanded, let alone penalised or forced to resign for the botched police arms shipment that rocked this nation for months.

There have been no apologies by any of those who just a couple of weeks ago were so stoutly and garrulously defending the bringing into the country by the Sierra Leone Police of arms and ammunition that are enough to fight Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb under the guise of policing November’s election or securing the homes of diplomats.

The African Development Bank on Thursday in Tunis approved two grants and a loan amounting to USD 34.08 million to finance the rehabilitation of the Masiaka-Sefadu road project in the northeast of Sierra Leone, according to a release from the Bank.

The road to the country’s diamond-rich Kono district has been in a decrepit state for years and despite repeated promises by successive governments, it has not been fixed leading to the soaring of prices of commodities.