Sierra Leone Telegraph: 13 February 2019:
The Sierra Leone Telegraph has today been informed by sources at the Anti-Corruption Commission that the former Deputy Director-General of NASSIT – Mr. Gibril Saccoh, has been detained after failing to honour an out of court agreement to repay stolen public funds.
It is not the first time that Gibril Saccoh has failed to comply with agreement reached with the ACC to repay stolen funds.
In 2011, a corruption investigation into the purchasing of a Three Million Euros NASSIT Ferry conducted by the then ACC Czar – Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, found that Gibril Saccoh had misappropriated Public funds, and entered into an agreement with the ACC to repay the sum of Five Hundred Million Leones (Le 500,000,000) to the state.
But since that agreement in 2011 Saccoh has only paid back Two Hundred Million Leones (Le 200, 000, 000).
A few months ago, the newly appointed Anti-Corruption Czar – Francis Ben Kaifala, reopened the Nassit Ferry corruption case and Gibirl Saccoh was arrested for defaulting on his repayment agreement.
He was then released after signing a new agreement with Francis Ben Kaifala to make a payment of Five Hundred Million Leones (Le 500,000,000). But Saccoh has once again reneged on his promise, and today he was arrested by the ACC.
The Sierra Leone Telegraph understands that in the light of his persistent defaulting, Saccoh may be charged to court, and is likely to face custodial sentence if convicted.
All those who stole state funds must and must be charged and sentenced to prison. Nobody is above the law. The corrupt people must all face the law and put behind bars. Those people have made Sierra Leone one of the poorest countries in the world, as well as encouraging diseases in the country.