Facts on global news channel has shown that Sierra Leone’s First Lady, Fatima Jabbie Bio faces probe for an alleged breach of housing regulations in Southwark Council in the UK.
The global news channel which shares its findings with Nightwatch press indicates that the First Lady has abandoned a council flat in Southwark city in the UK for more than 42 continuous days contrary to the city’s housing regulations. Serious penalties could be imposed on her if found wanting for the breach.
One of the officials anonymously confirmed that “we regularly take actions to investigate allegations of tenancy fraud and take appropriate action if any fraud is discovered.”
Council conditions of tenancy document says that tenants must occupy a council property as their “only or principal home.”
The document also states that they must not be absent from their property for more 42 continuous days without first giving written notice to the council.
The council flat is set on a quiet residential street of terraced houses, less than two miles from central London.
A two-bedroom property in an area is estimated to sell for 385, 000 British pounds and cost more than 2, 300 Pounds in monthly rent although tenants of council homes will typically pay less than market rent.
According information shared with this press by the Telegraph, annual checks are carried out to confirm that it is their sole and principal home.
It is through such yearly checks that it was discovered that Sierra Leone’s first lady had abandoned the building in question more than 42 days.
Commenting on the headache issue, one of the officials said “If there is doubt that tenants are meeting the obligations in their tenancy agreement, we carry out regular checks and investigations to determine that those obligations are being met.
There is a huge demand for council homes in Southwark, and it is important that they go to people in the very greatest need.” In Southwark, neighbours said the First Lady had been sporadically been visiting the flat, and letters addressed to the couple have been outside the front door, according to The Times.
The First Lady has however defended having a London council flat despite living in a presidential place in Sierra Leone, seeing her act as legal, just and fair.
In a media interview in respect of the allegation, Fatima Bio says: She has “not committed any crime” by retaining her Southwark tenancy while living in a presidential mansion in Sierra Leone.
She further defends her continued occupation of the council flat by pointing out the British nationality of her children and the payment she makes for the council herself.
“My children are all British citizens; I am paying for my council house myself and I have not committed any crime,” Fatima Bio reiterated.
The First Lady is reported to have occupied the two-bedroom flat from 2007 to 2018 before returning to Sierra Leone when her husband, Julius Maad Bio became Sierra Leone’s President.
The first couple now live in the Presidential Lodge, a mansion on the hills above Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown which has swimming pool, tennis courts and a helipad.
Despite enjoying comfort and luxury back home, Fatima Bio still retains tenancy of the Southwark flat where more than 18, 000 (eighteen thousand people) are on the Borough’s waiting list for housing, with waits of more than five years to be offered a home.
Born in Sierra Leone, Mrs. Bio moved to the UK as an asylum seeker in 1996 aged 16 after escaping an arranged marriage to a man in his 30s.
She initially moved in with a distant relative and began work in the African film industry when she was London, appearing in a handful of low-budget Nigerian movies, and also pursued a career as a model.
She reportedly moved into the council flat in Southwark in 2007, and electoral records showed that she registered to vote there several times since 2009, and she also registered her company at the address in 2008.
In 2012, Mrs Bio met Maada Bio, now 60 and also President of Sierra Leone, in London when she was interviewing him about influential Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora at the time he was fundraising for his first presidential run.
President Bio and Fatima Bio, now the first couple married in 2013 and lived at the property in Southwark until his 2018 election victory when they returned to Sierra Leone.
At the moment, the First Lady has come under intense scrutiny about her public life especially in the governance of the state.
She is widely seen as a controversial figure in the country with critics accusing her of being too much involved in the running of her husband’s presidency and political party.
She opens and runs an Office of the First Lady located at Goderich village, the extreme west end of Freetown, a rare moment for a First Lady to enjoy such largesse of power.
Under a heat of criticism, Fatima Bio is being compared to several first ladies of recent past, such as Patricia Kabba and Sia Koroma who, several political Commentators say, have kept low profiles throughout their husbands’ presidencies.
The past first ladies have confined themselves only to helping their husbands run State Lodge and other important official matters assigned to them by their husbands.
Sia Koroma, the immediate former First Lady who was a nurse in the Uk, championed the establishment of Sierra Leone’s Free Healthcare policy covering pregnant women, lactating mothers and under-five children.
The Free Healthcare initiative is still being rolled out by the current government benefitting millions of Sierra Leonean children.
In a related development, the current First Lady, Fatima Bio also faced criticism after allegedly sharing a video on social media which, according to Reuters News Agency, showing Jos Leijdekkers, one of Europe’s most wanted drug traffickers, sitting close to her.
The video shows the drug lord sits two rows behind the First Lady and her husband in a church service in one of the remote communities in Southern Sierra Leone.
The First Lady also recently came under the spotlight for allegedly siphoning funds meant for the ‘Hands Off Our Girls’ campaign which attracted international financial support.
Sierra Leone’s anti-graft agency, the Anti-Corruption Commission went into action following allegations of fraud against the First Lady.
But, ACC’s probe, however proved that her hand was not on the loot, a finding bashed at by several members of the public.
The ACC was accused of tilting the scale in favour of the First Lady following a decision to first go after the former First Lady, Sia Koroma before coming to Fatima.
Despite scathing views and comments by critics, the First Lady is being praised by a good number of Sierra Leoneans for speaking up for women and girls’ rights.
She gained popularity for launching and championing the ‘Hands Off Our Girls’ campaign and the enactment of the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) and the Prohibition of Child Marriage laws to bolster women’s freedom, safety and empowerment.
The ‘Hands Of Our Girls’ campaign is to keep women and girls safe from sexual violence, while the GEWE law is to ensure that educated women take leadership roles in the fields of politics, economy, education, media, law among others bearing in mind the legally recognised 30% quota.
However, news about the imminent probe of the First Lady for illegal occupation of the council flat still filters through the public.