Sierra Leone Telegraph: 27 January 2025:
Sierra Leone’s ministry of information has published a statement regarding the Reuters report, about the presence of convicted Dutch international drug trafficker – Jos Leijdekkers in Siera Leone.
According to the ministry of information; “During the festive season, the president attended numerous family events and public gatherings, where photographs were taken with many attendees. The president has no knowledge of the identity and issues detailed in the reports about the individual in question.”
But the ministry of information’s attempt at distancing President Bio from the convicted Dutch international drug trafficker – Jos Leijdekkers, and pleading ignorance about his presence in Siera Leone, has now left many questions unanswered.
Perhaps the most serious allegation against the president and the Bio family is the relationship between President Bio’s daughter and the convicted drug trafficker.
According to Reuters, Jos Leijdekkers is the son-in-law of President Bio.
This is a very serious claim that needs immediate clarification from President Bio himself.
The published photos of the Dutch criminal sitting next to the daughter of the President on the same row of seats with other close family members of the president, speak volumes and provide sufficient circumstancial evidence to suggest that there is a relationship between the president’s daughter and Jos Leijdekkers, and between Jos Leijdekkers and the Bio family.
Whilst many would say that it is no one’s business who the daughter of the president dates or marries, it must be noted that Julius Maada Bio is the president and fountain of honour of Sierra Leone, acting as the moral beacon for the nation.
What is even worse, is the ministry of information’s claim that the president, and by extension – his security staff, were oblivious to the presence of an “unknown” person sitting among the family, just two rows behind President Bio and his wife, without anyone concerned about the security risk the presence of the unknown person posed to the President and his family.
Even more bizzare is the fact that the “unknown person” was given pride of place – priority over the country’s Chief Minister – David Sengeh, who sat on the row behind the “unknown person”.
Was this simply a serious and stupid security lapse? No one will believe that. President Bio and his family are the most heavily guarded family in the country.
The seating arrangements must have been planned, well in advance ahead of the arrival of the president and his family at the church by his security staff.
President Bio and his family cannot continue to remain quiet in the face of these serious allegations and aspersions against not only the Bio family, but more importantly, against the state and people of Sierra Leone.
Harbouring, conspiring, aiding, abetting, and benefitting from any criminal enterprise is itself a crime.
President Bio may regard himself as being above the laws of Sierra Leone where he is untouchable, but the long arm of international justice and its institutions, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) respects no one. President Bio will be held accountable.
If on the other hand however, President Bio and his family believe that the Jos Leijdekkers scandal is fake news, then they must say so in a clear statement immediately.
Until then, the world will continue to believe that, not only has Sierra Leone become an international centre for narcotics trafficking, but a private enterprise that is protected by state apparatus, owned, managed and promoted by President Bio and his family.
It is a big ask to expect Bio, a man with a PhD in staging coups (if his spouse Fatima Bio’s admission is anything to go by) and – dare I say – in election rigging (the cooked up 24 June 2023 election results speak for themselves), to come clean where his surreptitious involvement in the drug trade is concerned. He will deny all knowledge and responsibility all the way, taking his secret to the grave. For such a man, conscience, scruples, regrets, confessions and possible therapy and rehabilitation are for the birds. Indeed, I have been wondering just what god he was praying to during that Catholic church service where he had a convicted drug baron on the run for company. Mammon? Most certainly.
Refusing to admit is cultural in the political industry.