News

By Mustapha Kamara Jnr

Commercial transports have become the new route of transmission of the Ebola virus disease in Sierra Leone, making them a serious threat to the country`s fight against the ongoing Ebola epidemic, the National Ebola Response Center (NERC) said Wednesday.

Retired Major Paulo Conteh, head of the NERC, said they have observed in the past weeks that taxi drivers were transporting sick people to treatment centers at different parts across the country. He said he was gravely concerned about such risky and harmful acts.

By Mustapha Sesay & Crispina Taylor

The international auditing firm, KPMG, parted ways with the former Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to avoid legitimizing suspected procurement violations, the group`s country head disclosed in parliament on Thursday.

By Aminata Phidelia Allie

Minister of Information and Communication, Alpha Kanu, has hit at critics of the controversial sacking of Samuel Sam Sumana as Vice President of Sierra Leone.

Kanu sounded particularly critical of lawyers who have cited constitutional provisions challenging the decision by President Ernest Bai Koroma which has thrown the country into a constitutional crisis. Lawyers, he said, are “characters in a play” and that a character cannot interpret a book more than its author.

Sierra Leone`s President Ernest Bai Koroma Thursday named his ambassador to China as new Vice President.

Victor Bockarie Foh was named at the end of a closed door meeting by senior party ranks of the governing All Peoples Congress (APC) and he was sworn-in almost immediately into office.

Foh took the oath of office in front of the president at State House.

He replaces Samuel Sam Sumana who was controversially sacked earlier on Wednesday, a move that has set in motion a constitutional debate that is getting louder by the day.

By Mustapha Sesay & Crispina Taylor

Former minister of health, Miatta Kargbo, and former Permanent Secretary, Sadiq Kapuwa, have denied instructing Charles Mambu to use money meant for loan repayment.

Mr Mambu, the Director of the civil society group Health for All Coalition (HFAC), is in front of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for payments his organization received as part of efforts to fight against the Ebola epidemic.

By Mustapha Sesay & Crispina Taylor

Opposition Member of Parliament, Mustapha Brima, told parliament on Tuesday that the judiciary was in a terrible condition and needed re-fixing.

He made the comment at the end of an oversight tour by the Legislative Committee to get first hand information on the judicial system in the country.

Brima said buildings housing the judiciary were nothing to write home about as they consisted of “dilapidated structures, leaking roofs, and bad toilets.”

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

After so much publicity around the proposed online lecture being provided by the University of Sierra Leone (USL), students have failed to take advantage of the opportunity, a top university official said Tuesday.