International drugs dealer and smuggler, Jos Leijdekkers has become another elephant in the room in Sierra Leone thereby putting the country’s international image in a quagmire. Those responsible for protecting the country’s image in the international sphere by ensuring that criminals of this nature and stature are stopped from being harbored on the country’s soil are now distancing themselves from any knowledge of his presence in the room.
The fact that the Police, the Immigration Department, the Anti-drugs Agency, the Office of National Security with all their intelligence gathering ability and capacity, could not tell how and when this fugitive made his way into the country remains enigmatic.
The on-going drug and money laundering saga or soap opera that has exposed the Government of Sierra Leone to international ridicule though enigmatic, has reached crashing point with Sierra Leoneans squabbling over the factuality of Government’s claim of no knowledge of the presence of this fugitive in the country. Tongues are no wagging around the assumption that “anyone in Government especially those close to the President and his security detail that says he or she does not or did not know about the presence of Jos Leijdekkers especially in that church is a liar.”
Most citizens believe that claims by the MOICE in their 26 January 2025 press release suggesting that the President had “no knowledge” of the identity and the issues detailed in the reports about the presence of convicted drugs smuggler and money launderer, Jos Leijdekkers, “is an outright fabrication” aimed at macro managing what has turned out to be a disaster to the so-called re-imaging and rebranding of the country’s international image which this administration under President Julius Maada Bio claimed to have been in tatters prior to his coming in as President.
“It is a big lie aimed at damage controlling what had been surreptitiously hidden under the carpet by the Government,” a youth commented to Nightwatch.
“No one can just get closer to the President in the manner Leijdekkers was in that church at Tihun, without attracting the attention of the President’s security detail if it had not received due clearance from the top,” a student of Political Science at Fourah Bay College retorted.
With this unfolding melodrama around this Dutch fugitive, citizens are opining that there could several other “world-class criminals” that have sought sanctuary in Sierra Leone under the full protection of Government that citizens are yet to know about, until the bubbles around their identities are blown out by international intelligence agents that are currently in the country.
“The arrival of Jos Leijdekkers was not treated as something serious. Here was a young and handsome guy that certainly has the undivided attention hence the heart of the President’s daughter who is also very close to the President’s sister. The guy must have been clandestinely introduced to the President’s Close Protection Detail apparently as ‘Di Pa ee Pikin ee yone Porsin’ to now accord him all rights and privileges to be wherever the country’s First Gentleman and Fountain of Honour is without any speck of doubt,” a retired senior police officer stated, also therefore suggesting that this guy may have been visiting “Di Papa” as and when it is deemed appropriate.
“There is no way would the President’s own daughter Agnes be with a man that is not known to her father and those around him including even the First Lady, her stepmother,” the police retiree further suggested.
Several schools of thought are pondering over how Leijdekkers could have concealed his identity from the country’s security and intelligence agents. One is proffering that depending on what initial introduction could have been made of this Dutch fugitive to the President and the Bio family, all other considerations may have been put aside in consideration that he was a ‘Ndaemea’ an in-law, a white man, apparently from a rich background.
A Social Commentator noted, “U know say Salone man respect eni bodi wey get money,” apparently alluding to the guy’s cuteness, rolling attitudes with perhaps some security personnel at Lodge, providing buzz and his unchecked spending of cash, the parties, etc. making belief that he comes from a rich family. However, a small number of people may have been conversant with his real identity.
“He has been travelling in and out of the country. Based on what we know Leijdekkers arrived in the country with a Sierra Leone passport, a diplomatic passport to be particular, and was quickly introduced as ‘di Pa ihn pekin’ because he had the heart of the president’s daughter,” according to a citizen interviewed on the street.