Sierra Leone Telegraph: 25 April 2019:
The High Court of Sierra Leone, sitting in Freetown, yesterday Wednesday 24th April 2019, found Mr. Abdul Barrie – a former Deputy Minister of Works, Housing and Infrastructure in the Koroma led APC government, guilty of corruption.
Passing his judgement, the presiding Judge – Justice Reginald Sydney Fynn Jnr., said that Barrie must serve a total of three years in prison, or pay a fine of Two Hundred and Fifty Million Leones (Le 250,000,000).
The former minister was charged by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) with seven counts of corruption offences in relation to contracts for the refurbishment of various government properties which he awarded to Ribar Enterprise, a business he jointly owns with his wife, without disclosing his interest.
Mr. Abdul Barrie, had initially entered a ‘not-guilty’ plea at his first court appearance, but later changed his plea to ‘guilty’ for the fifth count of ‘Failure to disclose interest to public body’, contrary to Section 45 (1) of the Anti-Corruption Act No 12 of 2008.
Justice Reginald Fynn Jnr. Found the former Deputy Minister guilty and ordered Barrie to either pay the fine of Two Hundred and Fifty Million Leones (Le 250,000,000) in full within the next thirty days or face three years imprisonment.
The trial continues on the other five counts of offences. The case was adjourned to 20th May, 2019.
Issuing a strong message to those holding public office in Sierra Leone, the ACC said that it “wishes to advise all public officers who are in control of public resources to comply with laid down laws and procedures in the handling and disbursement of those funds”.
Saidu my bro,
The hatred and tribal consciousness that has been a huge concern to me. You see, as a Sierra Leonean I pledged my love and loyalty to my country but from the look of things, your own loyalty lies with your political party APC.
I consider people like you as fake Sierra Leoneans, so that is why you are thinking of bringing this nation down, but let me warn you if you have the guts you can try it and we will show you that we are not as stupid as you think, only fools think your way.
Ah bin don tok am traday lon tem say, dis platfom, na few pipool dem post ah go rid, espeshali pipool lek, Abdulai Mansaray en Sahr Matturi. Di rizin wai ah pik dem tu ya?…plenty tem dem dae gi non bayas opinion wae e kam pan salone politiks…if sef dem get pati wae dem fevor, but tros mi, dem men ya jes lek mi, dae kol tins aw e tan lek, if e qwak lek doks, biliv mi, dem men ya go tel u egzaktli say na doks sound dawan dae!!! Dem nor go tel u say na kao saoond NOR!!! BIKOS dem jes nor sabi difen di rong bot di rite!
But does that mean, we should look low upon those political die hards as idiots? HELL NO!!!..BUT we should help them out by removing the politically embedded misguided twig from their eyes so they could see clearly! And that is what these two guys including myself has been doing in this noble platform…this is why, in my humble opinion they (Jalloh,Mansaray,Matturi) stood out among the rest…duya ina pardin mi opinion ya. But na wetin ah don dae obsav for tu long…
I don’t care a damn if all my ministers and President should come from the same tribe, town or family. Important is that they do their damn job properly. We live in a country called SIERRA LEONE with SIERRA LEONEANS as its citizens. Please stop this unnecessary discussions about North, South, East and West. Those in power must just do things that can help to improve the life of the average man or woman… no more and no less!!!
Emmanuel…thank you for using your precious time, to submit your findings here for the world to see! See…putting a few people from different tribes, in key positions does not mean a government or organisation does not believe, practice or promote tribalism!
As a matter of fact, most politicians use it as a ploy, a device to avoid criticisms and appear impartial and normal. Again, I can assure you that those men, who are northerners, have sold themselves. Yes, they have been bought and they are now owing the SLPP their total loyalty and allegiances.
Listen to this…if someone, anyone, believes in tribalism it is easy to discern; their policies, plans and agendas, will reveal their true motives clearly to everyone with an alert, discerning mindset…these are the clearest indelible pointers, signals,and red flags!
In case you are skeptical about Bio and still have some doubts…just pay careful attention to what he says,and does! Watch those closest to him, what they practice, preach and promote, and you will come to know the man himself, without having ever met him!
Ever since Bio took power, the opposition it seems has been sitting on a razor sharp edge, cautious and afraid not to say,or to make wrong move. APC members have be tiptoeing, from place to place, as if they were walking on egg shells!
This harassment, intimidation, threatening and arbitrary, capricious arresting of the opposition must stop now before tempers ignite and explode like active volcanoes in the waiting! It is grossly irresponsible of Bio to bully and pick fights with the APC, a party that has the ability to turn our country overnight i to a total,and complete battle ground.
ls that what he is looking for? Time will reveal all things to those who are patient…they say. We are watching and observing; ill the smokes he is creating and fanning, become wide spread fires? Only Time will tell! Be assured;” Rising Sun Will Rise Again”
Saidu Conteh, each time you post on this platform, you expose yourself as a shallow and doltish clown that should be dismissed with no qualm. Emmanuel’s findings simply show that you engage in debates without putting your thinking cap on. When has your inutile and dysfunctional APC ever thought that there were people in Sierra Leone who were not northerners?
Has a non-northerner ever been given a chance to compete for party leadership in the APC? And you dumbly argue that president Julius Maada Bio having a government that reflects the regional and ethnic face of Sierra Leone should not be commended?
The vice-president and the speaker of parliament are from the North and the chief justice is from the western area. Additionally, key cabinet positions are held by folks from western area and the north and there has never been a time in the history of Sierra Leone when women have participated en masse in governance. With all of this, you have the gall and temerity to call the president a tribalist?
Your useless APC party was in governance far more than any other political party in west Africa. What does your vain and feckless party has to show for all that time? Don’t you think Sierra Leone would not have been this retarded if the APC had been booted into the abyss of redundancy and oblivion at independence and left to rot?
Why not just add the position of DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL and share all four (Chairman and Leader, Deputy Chairman, Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General) executive positions to each section (NORTH, EAST, WEST and SOUTH) of the country?
We would never have had such discussions in the first place. But, will all the political parties and politicians agree with my formula? It remains to be seen.
The way as I see things right now is, SLPP WORSE and APC WORST. I graded both parties the way I did because, no EASTERNER or WESTERNER was included.
Finally, may all the citizens of Sierra Leone always consider themselves as INCLUSIVE and ONE PEOPLE. AMEN AND AMEN.
This is one of the reasons why some of us have become so disillusioned with politics in our country. You read some people’s comments here, and judging from their writing, you can conclude that these are intelligent and educated individuals. Sadly, their stance, content and viewpoints totally disappoint and contrast with the former.
When you juxtapose their apparent intelligence with their opinions, that have been adulterated by tribal, religious and regional sentiments, you wonder what hope is there for our country? If people of such “intelligence” cannot rise above such debased instincts like tribalism and the rest, what are chances for the gullible and plebeian masses of our society, where a T-shirt here and a “totapak” there is enough to determine the destination of their ballot papers.
Sometimes, it is a blessing to be be politically non-aligned in Sierra Leone. I thank God for being a politically bankrupt Sierra Leonean. I thank God for sparing me the instinct to support any of our political parties. I support Sierra Leone and any group, programme, policy that works for the benefit of the masses.
Loyalty to political parties that have no political ideologies is fast becoming the opium of the “intelligentsia”. All hope abandon ye who enter Salone politics. Irrespective of your political persuasions, we should condemn, discourage, abhor and stifle any, and all attempts by politicians to use, abuse and misuse our tribal, regional, religious etc affiliations for their personal gain.
You can hardly claim to be intelligent, educated, informed or otherwise, if you can allow low level politicians to harvest your emotions for their own gain; especially when you consider the calibre of the politicians that lead them by the nose. It is really sad. God help us.
Indeed. God bless us, says Abdulai Mansaray. What an emotional commentary. Well done.
It is sad to see how toxic our country politically is, even one year after the elections. This is really pathetic and unacceptable.
We thought of launching THE Democratic National Movement of Sierra Leone for last year’s elections but did not participate because, we would have lost.
Our strategy to attract grassroots SLPP and APC supporters would have failed. From the polls we did, both parties were heavily accepted by their bases, especially on the local level. There were no resentment that we should have taken advantage of. These two giants just got embedded very deep in their bases.
I was surprised during the polls we had people asking if the movement has cash. I replied that the movement is going to ask them for support in any form because it’s their movement. It is the other way round.
Most of them said, if there is no money, no vote. We do not have the money they need. Some even went further saying, all their families had been SLPP or APC members. They will not change. The issue became a nightmare. The headache for us now, is how to bring such voters on our side.
These people make the largest part of the electorate. Difficult but, We will try. However, when President Bio won, we decided through our DETERMINED, HARDWORKING and DILIGENT LEADER Priscilla to hang on and make sure that President Bio and his government succeed. If the President or his government make mistakes, we will criticise responsibly, but also make suggestions to help. One of Pricila’s visions is, helping to succeed.
We are still working hard with our surveys and polls to help us find a strategy to win. We will only consider launching our movement or participating in any future elections if we are going to get GOLD(SH).
Finally, don’t worry Mr. Mansaray. Things will change. Again as you concluded, GOD help us and God will surely help us. But for now, let us be patient and put all our efforts and resources together to see President Bio and his government succeed. That is the only option we have at this moment.
Another one has fallen at the first huddle. Abdul Barrie was taken down by the Anti Corruption war machine which keeps being fine-tuned by Ben Kaifala and his team to make it behave like an Exocet missile, complete with its own radar system to ensure that the target is reached and destroyed. There is no hiding place; this is giving former members of the deposed APC government the jitters, even in the middle of the night, causing them to sweat in bed with the thought that ACC might come knocking on their door before daybreak.
The current effectiveness of ACC is entirely due to one man – Julius Maada Bio. Even though he is the President and boss of Ben Kaifala, he has turned himself to a spectator like the rest of us, attentively watching as ACC brings down one criminal after the other. The president knows that any undue Executive oversight in the daily affairs of ACC will completely render the latter useless and hopeless.
The stance taken by President Bio on corruption is one of the most important components of his administration that has reduced the All Peoples Congress [APC] to a focus group rather a political party in just twelve months
By his actions, President Bio is giving APC a free lecture on how not to run a government. Former President Koroma is now a broken man even as he tries to put on an endearing and brave face; the exposure of debilitating corruption in his government that went unpunished must be causing the former unmitigated anguish. Time has tripped him.
I thought it was all witch-hunt and intimidation!
There we go…the scapegoating, inflexible, tentacles of the SLPP are now beginning to spread, surround and grasp the opposition in its tribalistic, expedient iron grips. One man at a time, targeted and kept in full view on the lenses of political snipers loyal to the government in power.
The SLPP has become drunk with the taste of power, and all sound judgment and reasoning has been lost, sacrificed totally for the purposes of greed, revenge, and ambition. Our eyes are focused, watching and studying their every move. Chess Masters, we have become!
I have always maintained that for any nation in Africa to make genuine progress,witch hunting,and tribalism should be stopped; not be encouraged but frowned upon. Exactly the opposite is what is happening in Sierra Leone,presently; we are now being ruled by angry, discontented and unstrustworthy men, who have been brooding over injuries, keeping scores for years, and are now anxious in their own self-conceited way to make things even.
And remember the SLPP has been mulling and nursing a lot of self-inflicted political wounds for decades. It falsely holds the APC responsible for now is their finest moment They believe that they must pursue and exact revenge for their hateful mean-spirited, tribalistic vendetta.
We stood against their hatred before and won.…countless times. We trampled and stamped them into obscurity and oblivion. This is nothing new! we strove with them before and God willing we will strive with them until their end…”Rising Sun Will Surely rise Again”.
Good evening brother saidu. I have been reading your comments on this platform, thou you have some genuine concerns but I have some reservation about your tribal sentiments about the present govt. Who is more monoethinc than your APC party.
Below are my findings for analysis as follows: In ex koroma government, the head of the executive was a northerner, legislature was a northerner, judiciary was a northerner and key cabinets positions like education, health, finance, mines, foreign affairs, internal affairs etc.
Below are the APC executives as follows: chairman and leader – northerner, deputy- northerner and the secretary general- northerner. In the present govt, the head of the.excutive is a southerner, the legislature is a northerner and the judiciary is a westerner.
Below are the executives of the SLPP as follows: chairman and leader – is a southerner; deputy – northerner and the secretary general – northerner. Looking at analysis, who is mono-ethnic or tribalistic? Kindly be frank with your consience.