News

By Kemo Cham

Sierra Leone’s tax authority has reached a settlement with one of the country’s biggest mobile phone companies in an alleged tax evasion row.

A source at the National Revenue Authority (NRA) says AFRICELL will pay in four tranches the Le 19 billion ($ 2.7million) it owes in corporate tax for 2015. 

This follows the sealing-off last week of the telco’s offices in Freetown in execution of a forceful compliance of what was left of a total of Le 30 billion ($5 million) the company owed.  

With just three days before the enforcement by the country’s national revenue authority of a 30-day ultimatum against businesses in arrears of the Goods and Services Tax, President of the Sierra Leone importers association says it will breed bitterness. 

“Failure to properly inform us officially of such ultimatum before issuing it will result in bitterness and misunderstanding between business houses and the government”, Alhaji Alpha Tanue Jalloh told Politico.

By Septimus Senessie in Kono

The leadership of the Kono District Council in eastern Sierra Leone is under pressure over an alleged misuse of its budgetary allocation with accusations of miss of funds meant for the poor.

By Septimus Senessie in Kono

The Koidu School for the Blind (KSB) in eastern Sierra Leone is at risk of closure due to lack of funding to run it. 

The school’s administrators say government’s failure to pay their subvention and school fee subsidies has led to a situation of hunger which is forcing pupils to abandon the school.

By Umaru Fofana

Lawyers for Samuel Sam-Sumana have completed filing their case at the ECOWAS Court in Abuja challenging his sacking in March 2015 as Vice President of Sierra Leone.  They are led by Ghanaian lawyer Dr. Raymond Akongburo ATUGUBA and prominent Nigerian lawyer Femi Falana

In a 25-page application, the lawyers are asking the Ecowas Court to order Sierra Leone to pay their client $ 210 million in damages and legal cost. They also want him reinstated as Vice President of Sierra Leone. 

By Umaru Fofana

Tuesday 25 October 2016: 

Good evening all ye Good Samaritans. We have just returned from Mile 91 to carry out a task a good many of you asked of me to do: coordinate the aftermath of the outpouring of grief after that video of Zainab Kamara - a cripple single mother of four - had gone viral and touched your hearts of gold.

By Umaru Fofana

It has just emerged that a Sierra Leonean national was last week arrested in the Turkish capital, Ankara after he had gone to renew his residency permit. He is accused of being a member or follower of the group the Turkish government alleges was behind the attempted coup of July this year. An accusation he vehemently denies. 

David Junusa, who has been legally resident in Turkey for nearly 20 years, is still in detention.