Deveaux went on to say the president will be returning from neighboring Guinea/Conakry by road via the Sierra Leone/Guinea border in northern Kambia District and will be received at the border crossing point by top officials, members and supporters of the APC and his family members.
He said the APC big man will be driven in a motorcade to Makeni city where he will address a meeting of APC members and supporters in the new Northern Region APC office.
The national publicity secretary went on to say after the meeting, Koroma will be driven to his private provincial residence in Makeni town by his family members and friends.
The news point today will be whether former President Koroma’s diplomatic passport to which he is entitled as a former Head of State, will be withdrawn from him as his name is on a list of 51 (fifty-one) former government functionaries named in the Report of the Governance Transition Team set up by President Julius Maada Bio to look into the ten-year (November 2007 – April 4, 2018) administration of former President Koroma.
It could be recalled that following the presentation of the Report and the adoption of its recommendations by the Cabinet on Friday July 6, 2018, President Bio directed the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to immediately lead on the establishment of a Judge-led Commission of Inquiry as provided for in Section 147 of Act of Parliament No. 6 – the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone.
The Commission shall consist of a “Judge of International Repute” and another “Judge of National Repute”. The names of the Judges will be announced shortly, according to a State House Press Release, and the Commission will be mandated to conduct the necessary Inquiry within a stipulated time.
Unconfirmed report states that the “Judge of international repute” will be a Nigerian Judge while Sierra Leoneans await the announcement of the “Judge of National Repute” and the Minister of Information & Communications, Mohamed RadoSwarray hinted during a radio programme on FM 98.1 GOOD MORNING SALONE Tuesday July 31, 2018 that the Commission of Inquiry will be set up “soon”.
Former President Ernest Bai Koroma, APC March 2018 Presidential Election candidate Dr.Samura Kamara, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation and one time Minister of Finance, Chief Justice of Sierra Leone Abdulai Cham and several other former APC top government functionaries, the Management of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (one hundred percent government owned,) and the Rokel Commercial Bank, (51 percent government owned), are in a group of 51 (fifty-one) former government functionaries who have been slammed with a Travel Ban, according to a memorandum signed by Assistant Inspector General of Police Elizabeth Turay, on behalf of the Inspector General of Police, published Monday July 9, 2018.
President Koroma was out of Sierra Leone on vacation in neighboring Guinea/Conakry from where on 5th July, 2018, he issued a statement on President Julius Maada Bio Governance Transition Team Report which Koroma dismissed the allegations of corruption against him as “nonsense”. The report which was presented to President Bio at State House and made public Wednesday July, 4, 2018, contains damning allegations of misappropriation of public funds and corruption against government functionaries during the ten-year (November 2007 to April 4, 2018) governance of President Koroma.
On Monday July 9, 2018 during the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) TV current affairs programme THE PODIUM, Deputy Head of Police Media Unit Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Samuel Conteh, in answer to a question put to him by the Presenter of the programme Asmieu Bah on the issue of former President Koroma’s diplomatic passport, ASP Samuel Conteh replied that in the then circumstance of former President Koroma being out of the country, whenever he returns to Freetown, he would be required to surrender his diplomatic passport, to which he is entitled by virtue of the fact that he is a former Head of State and which he should retain.
Meanwhile former vice president Victor Fohdid not appear in the Freetown High Court Monday July 30, 2018 when the alleged Hajj corruption case was scheduled to commence hearing. The alleged corruption case against Foh and his two co-accused Sahid Kamara former Adviser at State House to former President Ernest Bai Koroma, and Abubakarr Carew, former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender & Children’s Affairs, has been rescheduled for hearing on August 20, 2018, according to the Head of the Outreach Unit of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Abubakarr Turay during a cellphone interview with this Writer.
“I can confirm that the case has been rescheduled for some time after 15th August, 2018, which could be August 20, 2018”, he affirmed.
Victor Foh is alleged in count one to have misappropriated funds drawn from the 80,000 (eighty thousand) US dollars Hajj account, and count two, conspiracy to commit a corruption offence.
The other two co-accused are alleged to have misappropriated public funds of 300 (three hundred) million Leones donated to the Sierra Leone Government for the benefit of Sierra Leonean Muslims intending to perform the Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 2017, according to the Head of the Outreach Unit of the ACC Abubakarr Turay during a cellphone interview with this Writer.
Questioned whether Victor Foh has repaid the sum of 80,000 (eighty thousand) US dollars, ACC Abubakarr Turay replied Quote “during a search conducted as part of our investigation in 2017, an amount of 60,000 (sixty thousand) US dollars was recovered in the Hajj Secretariat in the Vice President’s Office in Freetown, but I cannot confirm that the former Vice President Victor Foh has repaid the 80,000 (eighty thousand) US dollars.”
Unconfirmed report states that Victor Foh has repaid the $80,000 allegedly misappropriated, either by himself or by himself and his co-accused and that he could be discharged.
