ONLY GOD CAN SAVE LUNGI AIRPORT PASSENGERS
Honestly we are used to luggage being stolen at Lungi Airport. Despite all the physical improvement to the structure, the contracting of a British security firm and the creation of a special police division for the airport, things are still getting missing from one passenger or the other.
The latest is shocking even by Hollywood movie standards. A business executive looking to invest in Sierra Leone landed at our airport in a private jet and crossed over to do business. While they were having a round of meetings in the city, thieves evaded all layers of security and REBRANDED SIERRA LEONE by entering the plane and doing their usual stuff. The thieves are said to have destroyed all the camera equipment that could have provided foottage of them.
Once again, Munu’s men have failed to catch common criminals who have now REBRANDED Sierra Leone as a country where even private planes sitting in some corner on our airport tarmac are not safe. We know it's a scary thought but what if the people who REBRANDED Sierra Leone in that way were TERRORISTS?
Munu will soon spring to the defence of his people and accuse the media of crying wolf. But this is clearly an unacceptable breach of security. We are now getting some more information about how all this happened. We shall make the facts known to our readers as soon as we are able to verify them.
We are now waiting for resignations and dismissals. As a nation we are still fighting to clear the damage caused by the cocaine wahala that struck in the early days of De Pa's government.
We don’t deserve all this – at almost US$ 90 airport tax in Sierra Leone is among the highest in Africa and our safety cannot be guaranteed. We are waiting.
WHY CHIDI CARIBBEAN MINAH WAS SACKED AS MINISTER
Chidi Minah, the guy who loves going to the Caribbean to visit his in-laws has been sacked as Minister of Transport and sent over to the UN as ambassador. We have asked for some information on the shake-up as ordinary Sierra Leoneans but nobody is talking to us. We will keep pushing despite the fact that we’ve been told certain things by certain people about what might have caused Minah in particular to be sent abroad. In true Politico tradition, we will not publish until we can actually stand up in public and defend ourselves on the materials we put out.
As a matter of curiosity, is the Ministry of Transport about to introduce parking meters for vehicles coming into the Central Business District? We hear that one company has the upper hand in the race to land the lucrative contract to operate the system. Did Minah approve before he was sacked? Or is that the first task awaiting Third-term Logus Koroma? Questions, questions and more questions.
SOUNDS OF MILE 91: FROM THE RED SUN TO THE HOUSE.
Now, could John Gbla of Mile 91 become the APC's Augustine Torto? Here's why we ask: Augustine Torto was an SLPP MP in 2002 representing a constituency in troubled Kono district. In 2007, the SLPP denied him their party symbol to contest that election. Torto left the SLPP and joined De Pa's APC. He won that election even if under dubious circumstances and in fact still holds the seat.
In Mile 91 a tricky situation is developing. The APC have denied John Gbla their party symbol to contest in the upcoming bye-election and the man has decided not to join the Tower of Babel called SLPP but to stand as an independent candidate. So could he become the APC's Augustine Torto?
Mile 91 is rock-solid APC but this looks like a fight from within. We hear that party big men, and they are mostly men, are pouring into the town to plead with Gbla to drop out of the race. If this guy was so important to the party, why didn't they give him the symbol?
We've heard reports that Gbla's supporters are busy attacking De Pa's portraits in the town. So there are violent people even in the GREAT APC eh?
STARZERO OUT OF A BIG LEGAL HOLE…SOMEWHAT
Another deal stitched up in another dark room has dug Star Zero out of big legal hole into which she had jumped with her eyes wide open. Oh Boy! Her song was truly nasty. We listened to the song many times in the office once the matter went to court and found it utterly disrespectful not only to the subject of her mindless attack but to all people of Sierra Leone. The people of this country deserve more than a cynical and grudging apology meant only to get Star Zero out of possible jail.
On behalf of the rest of us decent Sierra Leoneans, we call on Star Zero and her producers to immediately withdraw all the copies sold in the last month or so. That’s a difficult task but they have to do it.
The other point is how come a recording studio in Freetown allowed Star Zero in their studio with a script like that? Do these recording studios have any ethical code. And who is really monitoring these things? Politicians grumble a lot about the media but what do they think about Star Zero?
Anyway, our decency was seriously assaulted by that rubbish song. And those publicity-hungry people who are jumping up and down claiming they’ve resolved the problem between North and South Korea should re-think their involvement in all this. Have we not just lost an opportunity to clean up these foolish things taking place in the so-called music industry?
OLUNIYI BLACKOUT EMBARASSED AGAIN
Hello Minister Oluniyi Blackout. How are you today? You must be thoroughly embarrassed by what happened at 98.1 radio on Wednesday morning huh? We were embarrassed and disappointed too because we didn't get to hear your own excuses about the killer blackouts in full. It was also impossible to put questions to you directly on issues like the return of the much vilified Kabbah Tiger and the extra-budgetary constraints that come with providing our own electricity from the back of our dwellings. And also about the conflicting statements we get from Bumbuna and NPA staff on the status of the hydro-electric plant.
Now we buy fuel daily, repair our generators and pay dishonest technicians from what little money we make. We know you were embarrassed on Wednesday but that is what we ordinary people go through daily.
We hope the station will call you in soon because we need straight answers from you.
KOIDU CITY ROADS STILL NOT DONE... VUVUZELA.
What is all this talk of billions of leones being misused in the name of road construction in the weeping district of Kono? We see massive road works going on in Bo, Kenema and Makeni towns. But we don’t know what is happening to a similar project in Kono.
We hear that a certain contractor who is a native of the district, brought in some fly-by-night company to hoodwink the government into believing they could do it.
We hope those huge sums of money will not go to the dogs. Petito and others in SLRA think their dealings with that fake company and the Kono project are top secret. It's not, because we've been fully briefed.
If Petito challenges us on this issue, we will give dates of meetings, nature of discussions and business transactions reached in places like Guinea; all linked to this seemingly failed roads project in Kono. Trust Politico!
© Politico 13/06/13
