FREETOWN: ABDUL OSAIO KAMARA: In a frank conversation with The New People, at the party's headquarters, Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) secretary general, Jacob Jusu Saffa, stated categorically that the APC leadership is clear that it will use violence and intimidation for the local government elections (as evident in Resident Ministers singing "fire,fire,fire dae cam"). It is obvious that the APC hierarchy sees violence as a means to an end. It is also obvious that the Police and the PPRC are not willing to do anything since all complaints to those two institutions have come to naught. Where there is no justice, he argued, people will respond to the law of natural justice and themselves and their property. In these circumstances therefore, Jacob Saffa put the APC on notice that SLPP supporters will "return fire for fire.” READ MORE

FREETOWN: JAMES KOROMA: Ten months into the tenure of the APC government, and all Sierra Leoneans can say for certainty is that life is a lot harder; there is a lot more suffering on the streets of Freetown; jobs are still not available; prices have shot up; the government is not clear on whether it will ever declare assets and practice transparency as it had declared; there is little investment in the economy. In essence, the lives of Sierra Leoneans have not changed one bit. Therefore, people are becoming despondent with APC's many promises and no delivery. The despondence was manifested in the APC organized rally today in Freetown. The crowd was a far cry from what the party expected READ MORE.

"UTTER AMAZEMENT" - Running Commentary on APC Rally in Freetown.

7.03.2008

FREETOWN: MAADA GBESSAY KAI: President Ernest Bai Koroma's promises to the nation and the international community about corruption have been ringing hollow after 11 months of vacillation on whether to declare his assets, put strong preventive mechanisms in place, and monitor the ethical commitment of his ministers and top officials to his pronounced fight against corruption. But evidently, it is all talk and more of the same. Our New People investigative team can now reliably inform the public that a deposit of GBP 21, 000 (twenty one thousand pounds) has been lodged into the London account of Kemoh Sesay, the Transport and Aviation Minister in Sierra Leone. Our documents and paper trail can be posted on this news web site (like all the others we have posted before) if the minister wishes to deny or challenge this firm assertion. The document in the possession of The New People has a number of other confidential transactions which we think we need to protect in line with our commitment to protecting Mr. Kemoh Sesay's personal life. What is evident is that the massive 21,000 British Pounds Sterling deposit is not his salary and it is not per diem.READ MORE.

FREETOWN: MAADA GBESSAY KAI: Since the last 2007 elections which were manipulated by the NEC and Christiana Thorpe, the APC and its band of hoodlums have been peddling information around town that the SLPP is dead and has lost its support base. This thought was paralysed in the minds of the APC supporters during the launch of the party radio station Unity. The turn out of SLPP supporters on that day was a rude awakening to the APC that the SLPP is indeed stronger than before. Even when they attempted to attack the party on that day supporters showed maturity and avoided the confrontation.READ MORE

FREETOWN: MAADA GBESSAY KAI: It was a meeting that was short but very focused. Involved were two paramount chiefs (names withheld for now), 5 youth leaders from Kono (one of whom has been prominently named in the recent spate of violence in Kono district and strongly associated with attacks on SLPP local government candidates), and 2 other people who are said to be prominent business people and supporters of the Vice President in Kono district. The meeting was targeted at "claiming Kono by all means necessary" in the forthcoming local government elections. Our informant attended the meeting with all the others and he has been a mole inside the Sam Sumana camp for a while, posing as a youth with strong interest in supporting the vice president.READ MORE

FREETOWN: DR. SAMA BANYA - PUAWUI: This writer, like many others, is by now used to the position of the New Citizen newspaper as it quite often makes vain efforts at neutrality, or to maintain a straight effort in consonance with the motto TOLONGBO which it still carries. The Tuesday July 1, edition of the paper was no exception. There, Mr. Editor uses a lot of words and heaps laurels on the NEC chairman, Christiana Thorpe, for “her courage in defeating the war on election rigging.” He then refers to the rest of us who insist that the election results were doctored in favour of Mr. Ernest Bai Koroma and the APC and that when that failed to produce the desired result, she called an emergency meeting of the NEC Commission even as counting of the ballots was well past the halfway stage and decided to invalidate the results of 477 polling stations. READ MORE

FREETOWN: MEMUNATU SHERIFF: Two Sierra Leonean academics, A.B. Zack-Williams and Osman Gbla, recently contributed the third chapter - The Conduct of the Elections: Challenges of Peace building and Democratization - of a new book published by NORDISKA AFRIKAINS INSTITUTET, UPPSALA 2008 titled The Search for Sustainable Democracy, Development and Peace: The Sierra Leone 2007 Elections. This book is very important because it is probably the first if not the first few that will go in history as a publication for posterity to refer to when making authentic reference to the Sierra Leone’s parliamentary and presidential elections in August 2007 and presidential run-off elections in September 2007. READ MORE

FREETOWN: ABDUL OSAIO KAMARA: As an African Women's leader, Miria Matembe of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) has fearlessly taken on totalitarian regimes and coordinated projects aimed at increasing the leverage of women in politics and society. Last week, she did not shy away from expressing deep dissatisfaction with the All Peoples Congress (APC) government of President Ernest Bai Koroma for organising and financing threats of violence (including rape, verbal molestation, and intimidation) by the APC's Task Force gang of political thugs. In a convened press conference, Miria Matembe disclosed that independent female candidates, particularly those who contested for APC party symbols but who were not given those party symbols, are being threatened with rape, beating, and otehr forms of molestation. The objective is for the independent women candidates (who are seen as influential) to feel insecure enough to drop out of the poltical races.READ MORE

APC MINISTERS AND MPs Bribed by Frank Timis' group?

6.30.2008

GREELEY, COLORADO, USA: PROF. KELFALA KALLON: The tendency for “bad” money to drive the “good” one out of circulation was discussed as far back as 405 B.C. by Aristophanes, the legendary Greek comedian and playwright in his play, The Frogs. In fact, he proposed a political corollary of this tendency – that “bad” politicians tend to drive “good” ones out of circulation in the following verse:

This tendency (for bad money to drive good money out of circulation) became known as Gresham’s Law on account of Sir Thomas Gresham’s reiteration of it in a 1558 letter to Queen Elizabeth I. Although the economic intuition from Gresham’s Law is important in its own right, I will focus my attention on the political version of Gresham’s Law and its implications for Sierra Leone.READ MORE

FREETOWN: RAYMOND DELE AWOONOR-GORDON awogordon@yahoo.co.uk:Like a bolt out of the blues came the announcement, which in itself was unambiguous. It simply stated that President Ernest Bai Koroma has announced the setting up of a commission of Inquiry to investigate alleged culpable individuals of government and institutions, including former ministers, in the Tejan Kabbah led government. “We are not going to tolerate a situation that would allow holders of public offices to abuse state property or embezzle state funds and get away with it” the release stated.READ MORE

FREETOWN: DR. SAMA BANYA - PUAWUI: At last someone is bold enough to do it; to say openly that "the King has no clothes on." I listened to Babadi's interview with Dr. Mariam Matembe on UN radio's teabreak programme last Friday morning with much interest. I don't know how many people listened to the programme or are aware of why she and some other colleagues from other parts of Africa are currently in Sierra Leone. It is to assist our women who are aspiring to political participation in governance with particular reference to the imminent local council elections. Those women, in association with the national Democratic Inststitute have been conducting a workshop mostly for women candidates, the majority of who are independent candidates. As a follow up of what they had been discussing, they have, by various methods, been monitoring the campaign trail and the conduct of the political parties and their supporters in general and towards women candidates in particular.READ MORE

FREETOWN: MAADA GBESSAY KAI: Concerned Sierra Leoneans have accused the Chief Electoral Commissioner of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) Madam Christiana Thorpe of double standards ahead of the July 5 Local Council elections. The accusation came following statement made by Dr. Thorpe at a news conference held on Monday June 23rd at SLENA that the closing date for the acceptance of withdrawal of candidates for the forthcoming elections is on Wednesday June 25th instead of the date she had announced before, May 25.
Speaking to New Vision yesterday a civil society activist Mohamed Fengai recalled Monday June 9th when Dr. Thorpe said at a news conference that thirty seven (37) letters of withdrawal from nominated candidates had reached the Commission and that their action was legitimate and in line with the nominations procedures laid down by the Commission. READ MORE

FREETOWN: MAADA GBESSAY KAI: Unruly youths of the ruling APC on Tuesday vowed to chop off the head of the SLPP Member of Parliament for Constituency 14 Kenema district, Francis Konuwa.
According to reports, the SLPP MP had to sneak out of Tongo yesterday Wednesday when irate youths of the APC Task Force regrouped and launched a full scale manhunt for him threatening to kill him and display his head. Hon. Konuwa could not talk to us when we contacted him last night. READ MORE