It is ridiculous if the government should use the two prong approaches; the court and the ACC to get their accused persons into humiliation.
The government White Paper on the Commissions of Inquiries into the last administration is now out, waiting to be challenged by the accused of the commissions in the court of law. Following the trend of the commissions, the case the ACC is trying to rope in former president Koroma was discussed in one of the commissions.
A date of 30-90 days after the government White Paper was scheduled to ensure that those dissatisfied with the rulings can challenge it in the court of law.
Of course it is an open secret that accused persons are well prepared to challenge the recommendations of the White Paper to maintain their innocence, and by extension restore their hard earned reputations as the COI is trying to drag into the mud.
Forum Newspaper believes that no two prosecutions should be made on the same account by two different legal institutions under the same administration.
ACC though a government institution set up to fight corruption, should have waited for the outcome of the legal challenge before it even start harassing the accused.
ACC should have focused on the findings of the Institution of Governance Reform and that of the Afrobarometer rather than desperately harassing their accused persons including former president Koroma.
That is unfair on the part of the commission and the entire government.
Those names were listed in the White Paper are patiently waiting for the appeal period to reach.
Travelling restrictions have been slammed on them from moving out of the country to see that justice is done to either find them guilty or not.
Records have it that even before coming into power Koroma was a very successful business man and had made lots of resourceful gains to deserve a prosperous life.
Forum Newspaper observes with serious concerns the Ernest Bai Koroma hunters – the ACC and the government in particular should have taken cognizance of this than gunning now for the seizure of his property as if he was not paid or has not been receiving royalties from his investments.
The presidency is a well-paid up job with lot of allowances attached with no domestic taxation.
Issues of importance are all slated in the White Paper, which the accused are prepared to challenge.
If the ACC were to sincerely address the issues of corruption, then it is needless to have set up Commissions of Inquiry to question the assets and status of workers of the last administration.
Government’s less concentration on national development demands urgent attention.
The government promised to fix the economy, and unarguably have clocked two years and six months in office. You cannot continue to pursue your opponents in the midst of challenges of fixing up the economy to change the political history.
At the end of the day, people will ask what you have done to revitalize the economy in terms of job creation, development and infrastructure. These are the verifiable indicators of your good job that will call for the votes to continue with you as a ruling political party.
The embattled main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) unarguably remains the most popular amidst all the corruption allegations against its leader and chairman, and members yet it cannot be easily extinct from the political landscape, as a matter of fact.
It is the hopeful that the government with its remaining term will continue to bring sustainable improvements for the betterment of the country. Political harassments of the opposition APC members should not be the focus if we were to learn from the teachings of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Report.
The challenges require government and President Julius Maada Bio to do more.
For sometimes former president Koroma had kept quiet. He was forced to speak last weekend to condemn “political harassment,” against him and his party members.
For ten uninterrupted years, former president Koroma served Sierra Leoneans with diligent, fairness, honour and integrity. It is with great astonishment that his works were not accepted by president Bio and the government. All sorts of adjectives have been used to describe his governance, and to fully indict him with criminality. The focus of the government is aimed at terminating the opposition.
Democracy calls for competitive political rivalry. And in political rivalry, the intension to terminate your opponent is always manifested at the ballot box, based on policies and issues either handled or they are failing to address. You cannot consolidate political grip by always using your incumbency powers to intimidate your opponent. At times your intimidation will call for more sympathy to the opposition.
No matter how long a government takes in office, a day will come for it to leave. Therefore, one has to be very careful in the use of misused political utterances. The right precedent must be impartially set to avoid political witch hunt and national disunity. Politics is the creation of a level playing field, wherein every political actor is given the opportunity to do his political marketing. When hate speeches, undue accusations, intimidations harassments tend to dominate the political atmosphere, the recipe for retribution is stomached. Sierra Leone is a small nation, and our political ambitions should be appropriate to the size of the nation. The issue of nepotism, tribalism and regionalism remain the key factors we must all kick against in the maintenance of our democratic peace if we were to avoid any form of confrontation in our political history.
It is thus the expectation that the political parties; incumbent and the opposition must bring unity, peace and social justice to the entire nation. Our democracy does not make provision for the policy of divide and rule. Laws are made to get the people into submission but not to victimize the innocent to make a political name. Every party is a custodian of our democracy, and the tenets of democracy are the yarning of the people.
The time for politics will come. We cannot use the time for development to accentuate political hate against opponent politicians. Development is the concern that all are crying for. We need good roads, regular safe drinking water, health facilities, electricity, good health facilities, agricultural productivity to enhance self-food sufficiency, resourceful education the shopping list in long. These are the expectations government should be focusing on to make their report cards great and admirable to certify them to make a possible comeback in 2023.
For now former president Koroma and workers of the last administration should not be the focused. If the government believes in the White Paper, they should allow the said accused to take the necessary actions to defend their good earned reputations. You cannot continue to use the White Paper and the ACC at the same time to pursue the same individuals. If the mandate of the ACC is now the mandate of the appeal court, awaits the time.
Former president Koroma has to answer to the White Paper, and he shouldn’t be bordered on issues in the White Paper and that of the ACC. With respect to the Commissions of Inquiries, we believe that they have exhausted all they were mandated to do and the government has fully responded to their reports.
The ACC cannot be double charged, investigate issues on the commission and the White Paper. As the nation and the world at large await the outcome of the White Paper, the ACC should equally wait to avoid political misdirection of justice in favour of its pay master.
If former president Koroma has a case to answer with the ACC, then it is good for the ACC to reference the commissions’ report to avoid the political blame of witch hunt.
Former president Koroma came into power with little or no harassment of the lives of our politicians even though there was much to be investigated. But because he was focused, he allowed bygones to be bygones and continue to develop and improved on what he met.
He did not harass any of the politicians but to give them a leeway to contribute towards national development. He embraced every headquarter town with development to mark his rule. At a time he should be enjoying his political break, he is now faced to attend to issues of governance in the name of ACC in the most discreditable form. But whether former Koroma will respond to the call of the ACC or not becomes the big challenge.
The bottom line here in all of these is that a call or invite for interrogations is not a warrant of arrest.
It is ridiculous if the government should use the two prong approaches; the court and the ACC to get their accused persons into humiliation.
The government White Paper on the Commissions of Inquiries into the last administration is now out, waiting to be challenged by the accused of the commissions in the court of law. Following the trend of the commissions, the case the ACC is trying to rope in former president Koroma was discussed in one of the commissions.
A date of 30-90 days after the government White Paper was scheduled to ensure that those dissatisfied with the rulings can challenge it in the court of law.
Of course it is an open secret that accused persons are well prepared to challenge the recommendations of the White Paper to maintain their innocence, and by extension restore their hard earned reputations as the COI is trying to drag into the mud.
Forum Newspaper believes that no two prosecutions should be made on the same account by two different legal institutions under the same administration.
ACC though a government institution set up to fight corruption, should have waited for the outcome of the legal challenge before it even start harassing the accused.
ACC should have focused on the findings of the Institution of Governance Reform and that of the Afrobarometer rather than desperately harassing their accused persons including former president Koroma.
That is unfair on the part of the commission and the entire government.
Those names were listed in the White Paper are patiently waiting for the appeal period to reach.
Travelling restrictions have been slammed on them from moving out of the country to see that justice is done to either find them guilty or not.
Records have it that even before coming into power Koroma was a very successful business man and had made lots of resourceful gains to deserve a prosperous life.
Forum Newspaper observes with serious concerns the Ernest Bai Koroma hunters – the ACC and the government in particular should have taken cognizance of this than gunning now for the seizure of his property as if he was not paid or has not been receiving royalties from his investments.
The presidency is a well-paid up job with lot of allowances attached with no domestic taxation.
Issues of importance are all slated in the White Paper, which the accused are prepared to challenge.
If the ACC were to sincerely address the issues of corruption, then it is needless to have set up Commissions of Inquiry to question the assets and status of workers of the last administration.
Government’s less concentration on national development demands urgent attention.
The government promised to fix the economy, and unarguably have clocked two years and six months in office. You cannot continue to pursue your opponents in the midst of challenges of fixing up the economy to change the political history.
At the end of the day, people will ask what you have done to revitalize the economy in terms of job creation, development and infrastructure. These are the verifiable indicators of your good job that will call for the votes to continue with you as a ruling political party.
The embattled main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) unarguably remains the most popular amidst all the corruption allegations against its leader and chairman, and members yet it cannot be easily extinct from the political landscape, as a matter of fact.
It is the hopeful that the government with its remaining term will continue to bring sustainable improvements for the betterment of the country. Political harassments of the opposition APC members should not be the focus if we were to learn from the teachings of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Report.
The challenges require government and President Julius Maada Bio to do more.
For sometimes former president Koroma had kept quiet. He was forced to speak last weekend to condemn “political harassment,” against him and his party members.
For ten uninterrupted years, former president Koroma served Sierra Leoneans with diligent, fairness, honour and integrity. It is with great astonishment that his works were not accepted by president Bio and the government. All sorts of adjectives have been used to describe his governance, and to fully indict him with criminality. The focus of the government is aimed at terminating the opposition.
Democracy calls for competitive political rivalry. And in political rivalry, the intension to terminate your opponent is always manifested at the ballot box, based on policies and issues either handled or they are failing to address. You cannot consolidate political grip by always using your incumbency powers to intimidate your opponent. At times your intimidation will call for more sympathy to the opposition.
No matter how long a government takes in office, a day will come for it to leave. Therefore, one has to be very careful in the use of misused political utterances. The right precedent must be impartially set to avoid political witch hunt and national disunity. Politics is the creation of a level playing field, wherein every political actor is given the opportunity to do his political marketing. When hate speeches, undue accusations, intimidations harassments tend to dominate the political atmosphere, the recipe for retribution is stomached. Sierra Leone is a small nation, and our political ambitions should be appropriate to the size of the nation. The issue of nepotism, tribalism and regionalism remain the key factors we must all kick against in the maintenance of our democratic peace if we were to avoid any form of confrontation in our political history.
It is thus the expectation that the political parties; incumbent and the opposition must bring unity, peace and social justice to the entire nation. Our democracy does not make provision for the policy of divide and rule. Laws are made to get the people into submission but not to victimize the innocent to make a political name. Every party is a custodian of our democracy, and the tenets of democracy are the yarning of the people.
The time for politics will come. We cannot use the time for development to accentuate political hate against opponent politicians. Development is the concern that all are crying for. We need good roads, regular safe drinking water, health facilities, electricity, good health facilities, agricultural productivity to enhance self-food sufficiency, resourceful education the shopping list in long. These are the expectations government should be focusing on to make their report cards great and admirable to certify them to make a possible comeback in 2023.
For now former president Koroma and workers of the last administration should not be the focused. If the government believes in the White Paper, they should allow the said accused to take the necessary actions to defend their good earned reputations. You cannot continue to use the White Paper and the ACC at the same time to pursue the same individuals. If the mandate of the ACC is now the mandate of the appeal court, awaits the time.
Former president Koroma has to answer to the White Paper, and he shouldn’t be bordered on issues in the White Paper and that of the ACC. With respect to the Commissions of Inquiries, we believe that they have exhausted all they were mandated to do and the government has fully responded to their reports.
The ACC cannot be double charged, investigate issues on the commission and the White Paper. As the nation and the world at large await the outcome of the White Paper, the ACC should equally wait to avoid political misdirection of justice in favour of its pay master.
If former president Koroma has a case to answer with the ACC, then it is good for the ACC to reference the commissions’ report to avoid the political blame of witch hunt.
Former president Koroma came into power with little or no harassment of the lives of our politicians even though there was much to be investigated. But because he was focused, he allowed bygones to be bygones and continue to develop and improved on what he met.
He did not harass any of the politicians but to give them a leeway to contribute towards national development. He embraced every headquarter town with development to mark his rule. At a time he should be enjoying his political break, he is now faced to attend to issues of governance in the name of ACC in the most discreditable form. But whether former Koroma will respond to the call of the ACC or not becomes the big challenge.
The bottom line here in all of these is that a call or invite for interrogations is not a warrant of arrest.
