News

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

The main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party has appealed for the Sierra Leone government to ensure foreign judges preside over its appeals hearing against last month’s ruling that stripped it of its parliamentary majority.

The ruling by two separate High Court judges on May 31 unseated 10 APC MPs, with nine of the seats handed to the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and one declared vacant for a bye-election. The development gave the SLPP a one-seat majority, with 58, against APC’s 57 seats.

By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay

Testimonies at the onging Commission of Inquiry in Sierra Leone have revealed that former president Ernest Bai Koroma approved a total of Le 6.1 billion as payment for terminal benefits for all 34 staff of the Petroleum Directorate. This money was paid in 2018 despite most of the staff still working at the Directorate.

This is the first time President Koroma has directly been tied to any investigation at any of the three Commissions which are investigating the activities of his administration from 2007 to 2018.

By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay

Three former African heads of state, including Ernest Bai Koroma, have confirmed their attendance at the impending launch of the Ahmad Tejan Kabba Foundation, the organizers have said.

Former Liberian leader and Africa’s first female President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo have both confirmed their names on the guest list of the event slated for this weekend.

The event is scheduled for Sunday, June 15 at the Bitumani International Conference Center in Freetown.

By Kemo Cham

The credibility of the legal profession in Sierra Leone has been called into question by the disrobing of three lawyers as disciplinary action by the General Legal Council.

The disgraced lawyers, who include the formerly revered Lawyer Shears Moses, were fingered for unprofessional conduct. Lawyer Moses was himself indefinitely suspended pending an appeal against his conviction relating to his involvement in exams malpractice when he headed the Law Department at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone (USL).

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

A major operation designed to decongest Freetown’s highways has been received with mixed feelings.

The operation, dubbed ‘Operation Push Back’, entails reclaiming parts of six highways across the city which have been characterized by heavy traffic due to street hawking and unwise use of the main roads. The operation entails forcing pedestrians to use designated footpaths for walking and traders, who have colonized certain parts of the streets, are also forced to relocate to market areas.

By Hassan J. Koroma

Njala University has convened its first MIT J-Wel Seminar, three months after it was admitted into the prestigious MIT J-Well Fellows Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay

The Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) has presented data from the first ever geospatial map of local courts in Sierra Leone.

The data wee obtained from a study conducted through a collaborative research with a UK-based Sierra Leonean as part of his doctoral research documenting court cases at chiefdom levels and assessing the efficiency, accessibility and the cost associated with the local courts system in the country.