Opposition leader and presidential candidate for the Sierra Leone Peoples Party has threatened to expose President Ernest Bai Koroma and members of his government’s “shady deals” in and outside the country if they continue to “harass” them “unfairly”.
He was responding to allegations that he siphoned hundreds of thousands of US dollars when he was deputy military leader of Sierra Leone, monies that were accrued from the sale of Sierra Leonean passports in Hong Kong. He accused the government of peddling the allegations.
“By the way they [the All People’s Congress government] should not be comfortable doing this because we have quite a lot on them too in terms of properties in the UK…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,” said Julius Maada Bio in an exclusive interview with Politico.
He however, noted, “…we think we should face this particular [election] contest in a decent manner,” and added that “the inquest [on the killing of Bambay Kamara] was actually meant for me, to stop me in my race”.
On what the government still think about the content of those documents implicating Bio, Minister of Information and Communication Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo said his government had no hand in the corruption allegations being made against the opposition leader and that their hands were clean. He said they were still studying the documents themselves.
“The publications. As you would know most of the stories relating to this passport saga were published by the private sector media. And I have been following the publications. Recently I heard that the Attorney General invited Dr Abass Bundu who was at one time Foreign Minister of this country for interrogation and he was granted bail. But I think what the newspapers are saying and some of the radio stations are trying to emphasise is the fact that during the NPRC era passports belonging to the state were sold to certain people in Hong Kong and that the money accrued from the sales was used for the personal use of individuals. There is a cabinet conclusion to the effect compiled by the last government. The last government itself, headed by President [Ahmad Tejan] Kabbah also raised issue as to why and how the NPRC government undertook this enterprise of selling passports belonging to the state to foreign groups without accounting for the money. So what I see happening is that the press is merely picking up from that point and trying to emphasise the need for accountability and perhaps to ask questions [as to] what happened to the money accrued from the sale of the passports. That is if the passports were actually sold,” he said.
In an exclusive interview with Politico the minister had this to say:
Politico: And there are certain documents also alleging that the opposition leader, Maada Bio, siphoned money into his private foreign bank accounts. Has that been investigated by the government?
IB Kargbo: Well I can only say that the one-time Attorney General, Solomon Berewa, who later became Vice President, made mention in this regard that the former military head of state [Maada Bio] should have accounted for certain sums of money but I do not have the details yet. Once the details are available we will make them available to members of the public. To us it is very important. But of course I want to make it very clear that we as a government are not particularly trying to chase anybody. We merely want to be very certain that the rule of law prevails and also if it is very, very clear that the media is merely trying to target these people we also will make it very public. But of course if it is true that they sold passports belonging to the state without accounting for the money then of course the law will take its course.
Politico: And would that law taking its course include arresting and prosecuting Maada Bio?
IB Kargbo: Well I do not want to isolate Maada Bio in this case. I just want to generalise it for the time being. To state that I see publications relating to the sale of passports and the suggestion that these passports were sold to foreigners in Hong Kong and that the amount accrued from the sale of these passports was not accounted for.
This interview was conducted before Dr Abass Bundu, who was invited by the AG, was formally charged to court. Also read the exclusive interview with Maada Bio on this site.
(C): Politico Newspaper
