By Marcus Bangura
By and large, ECOWAS in a Communique dated Abuja 20 January 2024, registered their profound gratitude to the Government and People of Sierra Leone over the granting of bail to former President Koroma to travel abroad to seek medical and health grounds.
According to the aforementioned Communique: “The Economic Community of West African States expresses its profound gratitude to the authorities of Sierra Leone for granting permission to the former President of Sierra Leone, His Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma, to travel out of Sierra Leone on medical and health grounds. ECOWAS commends the humanitarian gesture that stands to serve the greater interest of Sierra Leone and the ECOWAS region”
ECOWAS renews its commitment to supporting the government and the people of Sierra Leone in their efforts to foster peace and security as well as to deepen democracy and good governance”
Given the aforesaid, The Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) has renewed “its commitment to supporting the government and people of Sierra Leone to foster peace and security; which are germane to the government and people of Sierra Leone for the general good of all. ECOWAS has also promised to help deepen democracy and good governance in the country, which are the bedrock for peace, national security and sustainable development.
The reassurance of the people of Sierra Leone by ECOWAS came at a time when Sierra Leone was in dire need of such reassurances. The ECOWAS regional bloc further expressed “its profound gratitude” to the Government of Sierra Leone for permitting former president Ernest Bai Koroma to travel to Nigeria on medical grounds despite standing trial for treason.
It would be recalled that Koroma who has been under house arrest since his second appearance at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on 9th December 2023, faces one count of treason, one count of misprison of treason and two counts of harbouring. His charges are related to the events of November 26th 2023, which the government describes as ‘’a failed attempted coup”. The events saw a breakage into the country’s armoury and a jailbreak that freed about 2000 prisoners. At least 21 people were killed, including a bodyguard of the former president at his residence, according to reports.
Koroma has denied involvement in the coup and vehemently condemned it. His lead attorney Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara (JFK) told AYV after the statesman’s first arraignment in court that there was no evidence against him, other than the fact that he knew some of the armed assailants who were allegedly involved in the failed coup attempt. JFK added that they would fight to prove Koroma’s innocence.
An initial ECOWAS proposal to relocate the former president to Nigeria in exchange for dropping all charges against him was turned down by the government, saying it was not part of what was agreed by the ECOWAS leaders and the government of Sierra Leone in the Commission’s first visit to Sierra Leone, after the failed coup attempt.
However, a second visit by ECOWAS president Dr Omar Alieu Turay, the former president’s bail was expedited, and the initial request was reviewed and approved in tandem with the bail application tendered by Koroma lawyers at the High Court of Sierra Leone. The application was submitted to vary the initial High Court Orders levied on the former President for his alleged involvement in the November 26th failed coup attempt. Among other things, the court order, confined former President Koroma under house arrest, and the second barred him from travelling out of the country without the notice of the Inspector General of Police. Third restricted his visitors to three only per day
Be it what it may be, the ‘humanitarian gesture’ of President Bio or the application of the law based on judicial independence, the high court in its judgement dismissed its original court orders and granted the former president bail during his second appearance on Wednesday, 15th January 2024. During his first appearance in court, on 9th January 2024 during the Preliminary Investigation (PI), the court order keeps the former President incommunicado.
With the granting of bail to the former president which by itself vary the high court orders, the President flew to Abuja on Friday 19th January by a Nigerian Presidential Air Force accompanied to the Airport by the Foreign Affairs Minister Timothy Kabba, Inspector General of Police (IGP) William Fayia Sellu, Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Peter Lavahun and his lead attorney Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, according to Journalists Umar Fofana and Amadu Lamrana Bah.
Koroma’s case was adjourned to Wednesday, 6th March 2024 by Justice S.O. Taylor, the Judge, presiding over the matter. In a national address to the nation on January 18th, President Julius Maada Bio called his predecessor’s permission to travel abroad a “humanitarian gesture”.
President Bio added that it reinforces the government’s position on the former president’s charges that it is a matter of the rule of law and not a political witch-hunt, which is a widely held view by opposition supporters. ECOWAS commends the government’s decision, making a case that it “stands to serve the greater interest of Sierra Leone and the region.
Sierra Leoneans on both sides of the political divide hold different opinions on the turn of events. Some believe that the government ought not to have allowed the former president’s trip while others contend that it was the right thing to do.
