IBRAHIM BAH OR BALDE OPENS UP – WE “TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY” FOR OUR COMMENTS
AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL - "In an attempt to clear his name, former warlord Ibrahim Bah has been talking to Africa Confidential by telephone from a secret location. He has contradicted the government’s claim that it was not aware of his presence in Sierra Leone by producing a letter from a senior All People’s Congress (APC) official inviting him into the country in late 2007. Moreover, he has produced other documents that indicate that he has been working closely with the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma, has introduced foreign business executives to ministers, been active as a businessman in his own right and travelled all over the region unhindered".
POLITICO- Well De Pa's government thought Balde's ghost was gone. Here is that ghost again speaking "from a secret location" to a publication as authoritative as Africa Confidential. Why should a man who our government says was sent to his home country, Senegal in peace be speaking from a "secret location"?
AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL -“The government’s repeated insistence that it knew nothing of Bah’s presence until May 2013 is challenged by a letter from the APC Chairman of the northern Tonkolili District, Paul Bangura (AC Vol 54 No 10). In it, Bangura formally invited Bah to Sierra Leone in order to drum up foreign investment.
“Dated 1 November 2007, the letter makes specific reference to the recent change of leadership and emphasises that ‘we as a government will always welcome you and your group of investors’. Bangura continues, ‘I have no doubt in my mind that if I have a guest like your good self, credibleinvestors will always be coming to Sierra Leone because of your credibility internationally… As chairman of the All People’s Congress Party in Tonkolili District I hereby invite you officially to my country.’ Bangura did not respond to our requests for comment"
POLITICO – You see, we know Paul Bangura very well and we have a good idea how he does his thing. But was he acting alone? Ok Paul Bangura didn't want to talk to Africa Confidential which is published in London but can he please address the media in Sierra Leone on this very serious issue of providing official cover for a man on a UN travel ban to visit Sierra Leone?
AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL - He (BALDE) also says "he arranged for officials of the Make Holdings Group to visit Sierra Leone, Benin, Ghana, Guinea and Togo. According to Make Group’s website, its Chairman, James Juhee Han, was made a ‘special envoy’ of President Koroma in June 2008. A month later, Make had secured ‘the sales dealerships of Samsung Electronics’ in Sierra Leone and other West African countries, its website claims.
Contacted in South Korea, Han admitted knowing Bah and described him as ‘an old friend’.
"In January 2013, Make Group signed a series of memoranda of understanding with the Koroma government for projects that are as yet undisclosed. The following month, the pro-government media outlet Awareness Times published a photo of Han and his delegation with Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana, along with Golley, adding that the Koreans had already met President Koroma".
POLITICO - It's almost as if we are watching a classic Michael Moore documentary. If you like, a kind of Fahrenheit 2012 based on the early days of De Pa's government second term in Sierra Leone. We probably missed all this because of that exhausting electioneering process which left the whole country asleep.
AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL - "In a letter dated 4 September 2012, he invited MagForce International, a French company dealing in military and other outdoor equipment, to ‘explore the business opportunities available in the country’, saying he would ‘use the occasion to introduce your delegation to government officials and private sector entities’. A subsequent letter of 24 September from MagForce President Robert Franchitti to the then Trade Minister, Richard Konteh, thanked him for the time granted to the MagForce delegation".
POLITICO - Konteh told Africa Confidential earlier that he couldn't remember meeting Balde because as minister he gets to meet a lot of people. Unless he was admitting to an unbelievable lapse of memory, he should remember receiving a letter from this company and the guy who introduced the company executives to him. That guy is Balde. Come on Mr. Chief of Staff!
AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL - "Further correspondence obtained by AC shows that Bah’s investors then met President Koroma at State House on 13 November. By 21 December, the government had signed a memorandum of understanding with MagForce’s partners, China Shipbuilding NDRI [Ninth Design and Research Institute] Engineering Company and the Chinese trading company CEMIT Machinery & Electronics Engineering Company, to implement the project, which is estimated to cost up to $100 mn".
POLITICO – Now things are getting serious. Ordinary citizens of this land that we love can only begin to wonder if our government will go to court in London to teach Africa Confidential a lesson.
AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL - He (BALDE) says ... "after his arrival in Sierra Leone.., he made no attempt to keep a low profile". ‘I registered my company [Ninki Group (SL)] legally and was paying tax to government,’ he said. ‘I always enter Sierra Leone by air through the Lungi International Airport, my office was 20 metres from a police office, I was paying residence permit regularly, I was meeting government officials openly,’ he said.
POLITICO – It will be great for the Attorney General's radio interview on Balde's deportation to be aired again so that the minister can talk to his people with all honesty about what the government knew about Balde's stay in Sierra Leone. Hear Kargbo “I take full responsibility" for Balde’s hasty deportation from this country just as his sins were about to catch up with him in our courts. We congratulate Kargbo for that after reading what Balde has now told the world.
THE HAPPIEST NATIONS OF THE WORLD – SIERRA LEONE MISSING
We looked at the ranking of nations with the happiest people just released and realised that our country was not among the HAPPIEST. Many other countries weren't ranked but why was Sierra Leone not considered even with all this propaganda about "De Pa dae woke" and suggestions that things are great for the average Sierra Leonean? Here we list a few reasons why we think we failed to make it to the list of happy people.
1. The propaganda blitz has lost steam and bite and the reality of our miserable life in Sierra Leone has sunk in. Like in Jamaica, according to Morgan Heritage, Sierra Leone is full of too many screw faces.
2. Many people are being denied what they deserve as citizens because they don't belong to the Red Movement or, worse still, they have names from politically prohibited regions of the country.
3. There's too much display of wealth from unexplained sources by people linked to the government but the ACC turns a blind eye. They quickly arrest junior staff in schools and police officers collecting pennies on the roads backing that up with press releases that completely ignore any suggestion of presumption of innocence.
4. There's no hope things will change as De Pa's final term rolls down. The third-term bid is defeated so why should he bother trying to land people on Mars.
See you next week.
(C) Politico 12/09/13
