Ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma has gone through corruption and money laundering charges and now on trial for treason whose outcome remains unknown. He battles it out with four counts of treason, misprision of treason, aiding and abetting and harbouring. The matter is being looked into by a court in Freetown presided over by magistrate Santigie Bangura.
Koroma was roped in a week ago after a 40-hour interrogation by officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The former President would make his second appearance this Wednesday for which his comrades within the main opposition, All People’s Congress would accompany him in court. Although the offences for which the former President is standing trial, hope that he would sail through remains high.
Such hope has been shared by Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, lawyer representing the former President as he strongly believes in his client’s innocence saying he took no part in a coup. The international community also shares these views.
Koroma has always lived the life of an upcountry gentleman in his hometown, Makeni except when he goes out leading AU/ECOWAS election observation missions to several African countries.
Hardly the former President comes to Freetown as his growing popularity is a thorn in the flesh of his successor, and would not like to see the country degenerates into anarchy. The high level of personal restraint and self-control brewed the hope that one day he would get back his freedom.
The hope that Koroma would walk free from the court is real when one looks back at the manner in which he goes free after countless charges of corruption against him.
The former President, in early 2018, was said to have embezzled state funds and laundered huge sums of money according to Sierra Leone’s graft agency, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Koroma, on several occasions, would be invited to Freetown to respond to ACC interviews which he complied with. At one time, a contingent of armed police and military personnel had confrontation with Makeni residents who came in to defend the former President against the tyranny of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
Koroma was already convicted even before statements were obtained from him by ACC investigators.
While in power, Koroma was branded third richest President in Africa with doubt about where he got his money pouring in. The former President was a low income earner as according to a senior SLPP official. “Ernest Bai Koroma was an ordinary insurance broker with little to offer the country,” he said in 2007 during the campaign trails.
This notion about Koroma was fully instilled in the heads and minds of SLPP grassroot supporters and lingered throughout even when Koroma became President.
Thus, wonders were rife about how a man of straw could rise overnight from rags to riches. Without any hesitation, SLPP politicians firmly suspected that Koroma amassed wealth out of public money making it difficult for the anti-graft agency to give up the wild wolf chase.
As a respecter of the rule of law, Koroma had cause to make himself amenable to law by moving unnoticed from Makeni city to one of ACC’s safe houses in Freetown where he would spend the rest of the day answering questions in the presence of diplomatic officials.
The terrain became rough and rugged for Koroma to tread when money laundering was added to the pile of allegations. Money-laundering is one of the most serious offences as it falls within the category of crimes having universal jurisdiction: any person accused of committing such crime could be arrested and tried in any country as if he committed them there.
With such felonious allegations, it was difficult for the former President to freely move out of the country not until he was made Chief Election observer for African Union and sub-regional bloc, ECOWAS.
After months of investigation, the ex-President came out clean as the ACC proved nothing against him. The pile of papers in Koroma’s investigation was taken to court as no sufficient evidence was adduced.
The corruption case died naturally and Sierra Leoneans heard about again during Bio’s campaign tours in which he warned the former President to comport himself or place him behind bars.
Bio was blunt to say that Koroma had embezzled Ebola money and had pardoned him for that, but would arrest and lock him up if he meddled with the country’s politics. SLPP politicians are scary and furious about the former President who appears political weighty even after the presidency. He is highly honoured among local and international circles.
Koroma displayed his political strength when he galvanised the international community into action about how they can prevail on government to allow that APC’s National Delegates’ Conference hold in Makeni city.
At the peak of the election row, a recent press release that came from the Office of the Former President calling on the international community to make their voices heard in the Sierra Leone’s political situation did not go down well with Bio and his SLPP officials whose zest for a second term knows no limit.
The only option for Bio is to reduce Koroma’s popularity by way of ceaseless litigations.
Before the former President was dragged to court for the “attempted coup,” quite recently, the Appeals Court dismissed his appeals that emanated from the findings of the defunct Commissions of Inquiry (CoI) led by Justice Biobele Georgewill.
The CoI was set up to investigate those persons who were President, Vice President, ministers and deputies in respect of the management of finances and other public assets between 2007 and 2018. The move for the probe was a key recommendation of the Governance Transition Team (GTT) report authored by former Chief Minister, Professor David Francis.
The report indicated that then government of Ernest Bai Koroma had the highest debts ever in the country’s political history and an investigation is therefore necessary. Although the commission was bashed at for its Kangaroo-styled nature owing to the absence of rules of evidence, selective justice and protectionism, it went ahead with many saying Bio had a secret plan: to shut down APC and hold the forte even when time is up.
The notion of Bio wanting to rule for another term even when he did not win was recently delved into by former parliamentarian and Minister, Kemo Sesay and that bringing charges was one of the ways backed up by political intimidation and harassment.
According to the COI, Koroma borrowed hundreds of millions of Leones from the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank which resulted into its decapitlaisation. The former President’s name stood prominently in a list of debtors at the CoI whose estate must be forfeited to the state if the bank was to be brought back on track.
Koroma was also accused of paying huge sums of money to so-called retirees of Petroleum Directorate while they were serving. The allegation also amounted to misappropriation of public funds for which the President must pay back so that he could keep his head above waters.
At that time, Koroma’s accounts had been frozen and travelling papers taken away from him so that he could respond to questions from the commissions of inquiry. One of the key submissions by state lawyers was a permanent ban on public life.
According to the ban, the former President would not take part in any public activity till death. The ban was however difficult to enforce as the former President had several international assignments. With the treason case pending, Koroma’s participation in various global platforms particularly ECOWAS and AU missions has been considerably curtailed.
But, hope to get back freedom from treason trial as it happened in the corruption cases keep him going.