Official documents leaked to the press have raised a lot of questions over the main opposition challenger for November’s presidential election. They allege that Julius Maada Bio, when he was Deputy head of state in the National Provisional Ruling Council military junta, siphoned into his private bank accounts monies made from the sale of Sierra Leonean passports to Hong Kong citizens who wanted to leave the country ahead of its return to China. He has been speaking to Politico.
Politico: If I could start by asking you about allegations of corruption surfacing against you…. that when you were deputy leader of the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) junta you swindled money meant for the state in a passport deal. Do you feel guilty or not guilty?
Bio: I am not guilty at all.
Politico: And what’s your response to the allegations?
Bio: These are all allegations that have been recycled several times and mostly when I go for elected positions in a democratic realm. I remember these particular allegations surfaced first in 1996/97 soon after I’d left [power as head of state] and it resurfaced in 2005 when I vied for the position of leadership of the [Sierra Leone People’s] party. It’s been on and off several times, again it has resurfaced nearly five years after the All People’s Congress took over the realms of power.
Politico: And why do you think it keeps coming to the fore?
Bio: Well, that is best known to those who bring it, because the evidence is all known to them. They have it all. They are bringing it up now only to use it as a means to intimidate my candidacy and to subdue my party. I believe that they have failed this country; they’ve recklessly handled the economy and now they want to narrow the political space and that is why they are bringing it up only a few months before the elections.
Politico: So are you saying that the allegations that when you were deputy military leader of Sierra Leone you collected some money that was meant for the coffers following the sale of some Sierra Leonean passports in Hong Kong are you denying all these allegations?
Bio: Let me throw light on this. It was not just the sale of passports; it was a whole immigration investment programme that was started by the APC itself. When we came in to power we looked at it and we wanted to completely take it off. But when we noticed that it was going to be of immense help to our campaign against the rebels we decided to keep it. Passports were sold in the process - definitely – and the monies gotten from those sales we used mostly for the purchase of arms of ammunition, monies which we could not get from state coffers. The International Monetary Fund had imposed a condition that we should not use any monies from their budgetary support, so we had to look for extra means to be able to support the war. From 1992 when we took over to 1996 most of the arms and ammunition that we bought were actually proceeds from the immigration investment programme.
Politico: So are you saying that these documents that are around now - which seem genuine - suggesting that you personally collected the monies and the monies were paid into your bank accounts in Ghana and the Channel Islands are in fact not true documents?
Bio: I have seen documents from Channel Islands and I have never had a bank account in Ghana as it is being bandied around. Monies were paid there and at one point definitely I had money for my cousin who supplied most of the arms; that was a personal arrangement...
Politico: Personal in what sense for supply of arms and ammunition?
Bio: Well, he is a cousin of mine and he supplied arms and ammunition mostly to the military at the point in time. It was extremely difficult as you know to get arms and ammunition supplied to a military government and we did not have the quantum needed to buy some of the arms that we bought. But he had special connections in Russia and he was able to access those arms for us and he supplied them at a very good discount. I can’t recall exactly, it’s over 16 years ago, definitely there were monies involved. Besides the ammunition we used the monies from the immigration programme to support quite a lot of other government activities but could not be supported by the budget from home like our Embassy or High Commission in London; it was an eyesore. At one point in time all the neighbours complained and they were going to take a very drastic action. I don’t remember how much but I know that proceeds from the investment scheme were used to at least refurbish our embassy in London and a couple others besides the ammunition.
Politico: So this your cousin who was supplying arms and ammunition to your regime did not at any time pay any money into your own private account?
Bio: No! He did not have to… eh let’s not forget that the late Steve Bio had been in business well before we came to power. He had over seventy buses and other businesses running in this country. So he was a businessman well before I came to power.
Politico: Your party, the Sierra Leone People’s Party, did an enquiry when President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was in charge. Are you saying that their findings were also not correct in the sense that certain documents attributed to a cabinet paper at the time are saying that you did collect some money, personally, from the sale of Sierra Leonean passports in Hong Kong?
Bio: I think there is a document that clearly explains that all monies that were meant for the state went to the state. I have seen a document to that effect. I was here at the time but Mr Frank Yiu who was in charge of that particular programme at the time has accounted for every document. I mean passports that were given to him, in monetary terms.
Politico: You say you don’t hold any bank account in Ghana, did you ever establish any business in Ghana?
Bio: Never before. Never and I still don’t have.
Politico: So where do you think all of this is coming from then because persistent rumours keep flying back and forth that you did own a business in Ghana and that you did own an account there.
Bio: It has been generated by people who think I stayed in Ghana. People even say I stayed in Ghana before but they’ve never shown a single shred of evidence to prove that I have been there. I spent all the time - I was out of this country - I spent some time in France and then in the United States. Nobody can really tell me when I was in Ghana, “this is the business you had”. They keep talking about it for fifteen years and I will challenge anybody to produce a single document to support the fact that I lived in Ghana for even a day when I was out of this country. As you know I think Abass is in court…
Politico: That’s Dr Abass Bundu who was the Foreign Affairs Minister at the time?
Bio: Correct. This programme, the immigration investment programme was actually handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the consulate, which we established in Hong Kong. I was only involved in the ammunition aspect of it because we used most of the proceeds. Again it’s been sixteen years since I left, they’ve had an inquiry by the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) government; I have been here now for about ten years since I came back to this country and nobody has approached me with any evidence to prove that I have taken state funds from the proceeds. It’s only coming up now because I am the opposition leader vying directly for a position that is held by the president. I think we shouldn’t go down this way; we have quite a lot on our hands as a country. We should try to face the contest from a fair point of view; we shouldn’t bring other issues, we shouldn’t narrow the political space. If this was a genuine attempt to retrieve money from me - which I should not have taken - I think I have been here for sixteen years, it should not be coming now when we are just few months to the elections. I think this is part of the strategy to try to narrow the political space. If the government has done a good deal of work as they claimed they have let’s face the polls on November 17 and let the people be the referee. But to want to reduce it to trying to arrest or take into custody quite a lot of the opposition I don’t think will augur well. Let me say here that quite a lot of my supporters are either in court or have been locked up and that speaks volumes about the democratic nature of our government.
Politico: And are you concerned that you may be arrested and prosecuted yourself over this?
Bio: That is definitely what they are trying to do. I remember there was an incident where there was a letter attributed to military boys the Dream Team and for which they said it was a treasonable offence for anybody who would be behind that particular letter. They claimed it was me. Then of course I have been physically attacked by the APC and of course they came up with the issue of Bambay Kamara and others. Although I was not the president nor the vice, not even the third in command at the time, they seem to be going for me more than any other person. So this is not the first time, they’ve been trying very hard and the inquest was actually meant for me, to stop me in my race I have come a long way and I want to continue and I am going to continue. We have quite a lot of issues affecting the people of this country and I want to challenge the president to discussing these issues in public forum. I will challenge him in Makeni, I want us to discuss that in Bo, Kenema and Freetown here. Let the people see how much he’s done. By the way they should not be comfortable doing this because we have quite a lot on them too in terms of properties in the UK but we think we should face this particular contest in a very decent manner. But if they push us to the corner we have no option but to really just spill the beans on the president himself and others.
In our issue next week, Maada Bio speaks on the killings of the late former Inspector General of Police Bambay Kamara and others.
