Friday May 6, 2011 - Inquest into London terrorist attack report is out - Coroner is of the considered opinion that nothing could have been done to save any of the 52 victims

The inquest into the 7th of July 2005 terrorist bombings/attacks in London in which three underground railway trains and an overland bus were destroyed claiming fifty two lives has published its findings. Coroner Lady Justice Hallett in her report that on the balance of probabilities, each of the victims would have died no matter what time emergency services reached them. Delays did not cause the deaths. Lady Justice Hallett was of the considered viw that no inquest should be held into the deaths of the four murderers, killers and home-grown terrorists, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Germaine Lindsay. It will be recalled that 6 people were killed in Edgware, 7 in Aldgate and 26 in Russell Square tube stations while the attack on the bus in Tavistock Square claimed 13. The victims, from various backgrounds, ages, faiths, beliefs and inclinations demonstrates just how bloodthirsty terrorists can be - with one goal in mind - the killing of people, but the people of London defied the terrorists, rallied around and refused to be cowered by the action of the cowards who target unsuspecting, unarmed and innocent civilians whose only crime was to go about their normal business. Again the Sierra Herald re-iterates that it is with the grieving relations of those who died as well as with the survivors who still have to live with the trauma of that dreadful day.

Transcripts of inquest

Tuesday May 3, 2011 - World Press Freedom Day 2011 - Another day to remind governments all over the world of the need for free expression and to have a platform where people from all shades of opinion, belief, creed and leanings can talk, write and associate freely.

This year's theme - "21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers" takes in the role of the new horizons in 21st century communication with more and more people using the internet and social media groups as tools for information and positive change. UNESCO, the United Nations body that is concerned with such issues has noted that this year’s World Press Freedom Day also marks the 20th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration for the promotion of free and pluralistic media. The Declaration was adopted after a conference held in Windhoek (Namibia) on the development of a free African press. It emphasized the importance of an independent press for the development and preservation of democracy and economic development. Two years later, the UN General Assembly established World Press Freedom Day. In observance of this day and the theme UNESCO's Director-General Irina Bokova, is appealing to all governments to uphold their commitments in protecting and promoting freedom of expression and freedom of the press, which are the foundations of all democratic societies. The government of Ernest Bai Koroma is advised to heed this observation by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon

"When governments repress their people and shield themselves from scrutiny, press freedom is among the most powerful vehicles for exposing misdeeds and upholding public trust. When people face discrimination and marginalization, access to media can give them voice and create a shared awareness of their plight"

Some food for thought we hope for APC operatives/bootlickers to the core who believe that a lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth and that flooding the internet with all manner of "newspapers" aka AFRC MK2 internet flying toilets - all seeing no wrong in Ernest Bai Koroma will make him win hearts and minds of the suffering masses. As we stated previously - read one and you know what is in the rest.

The authorities in London have given the Libyan ambassador to the Court of St James, Omar Jelban, sacked the UK embassy in Tripoli, setting fire to and destroying the embassy premises. This attack came in the wake of NATO bombing operations which Khaddafi spokesman claimed killed Colonel Khaddafi's youngest son and three grand children. Journalists taken to the site where the deaths are alleged to have occurred say they still could not confirm the claims but have to rely on what the regime says. NATO for it's part insists that it is not targeting Colonel Khaddafi in an assassination attempt as claimed by the Libyan regime, but that it was merely carrying out operations that would paralyse the control and command centres of the regime. The attack on the UK embassy in Tripoli bears a similarity to AFRC/RUF operations in Freetown when Johnny Paul supporters torched the residence of ousted President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah after ECOMOG jets bombed the Cockerill military base in the west of the capital, Freetown. Baying supporters of the junta attacked all perceived supporters of the ousted government and one BBC reporter who covered the attack on President Kabbah's residence was nearly killed in a vicious attack on his person after he was targeted by soldiers and armed men of Johnny Paul Koroma. That reporter was....no...not Victor Sylver the BBC reporter they blamed for the Mabaylla atrocities...but Umaru Fofana who recounted what happened on that day.

It was on a Wednesday today April 29, 1992 that the APC regime under the late President Joseph Saidu Momoh was, without warning, brought crashing to earth ending 24 years of uninterrupted despotic and reckless APC rule that saw the fortunes of Sierra Leone take a freefall and the rule of law as well as all things decent thrown to the dogs. The man described as the curse of the country, Siaka Stevens squandered all the opportunities he had to turn Sierra Leone into a paradise on earth for everyone and instead embarked on a political journey that saw him eliminate all those who stood in his path in a self-gratifying journey fuelled by massive and unbridled corruption, human rights abuses and the use of extreme violence as the calling card of the party. Siaka Stevens, the man who many believed rightly opposed Sir Albert Margai's attempt to smother differing political views with a one-party rule did not blink an eyelid to impose the same evil on the political landscape of the country. And as Prince William and Catherine Middleton celebrate their wedding today watched by billions all over the world and Sierra Leoneans mark 50 years of self rule, the relations of one Lieutenant Sahr Sandy would remember him and mourn his loss on that fateful Wednesday 19 years ago when unarmed he was gunned down by a murderer one S.I.M Turay who has now, we hear, managed to secure a job under the smoke and mirrors President in Freetown.

The day finally arrived, the hour reached, the minute passed evolving into that moment when vows were exchanged and lovers Catherine Middleton and William were pronounced man and wife. It was a moment, an occasion that was watched by billions all over the world in an age where the means of mass communication was as diverse as it was effective with street parties laid out all over the United Kingdom. Today's marriage is the culmination of the trials and triumphs of a relationship that started some ten years ago when the two met at college with both sides and families keeping things under wrap as best as they could. Close friends played their part making sure that the ever-searching bloodhounds of the media were kept confused with some knowing something was afoot but not daring to violate a code of conduct that respected the rights and privacy of not only the members of the royal family, but to a lesser extent ordinary people who just want to be left alone to carry on with their lives. Of course such an event cannot be without those niggling controversies that are a part of life within the borders of the United Kingdom. Questions were asked about why former Labour Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were not invited while former Conservative 10 Downing Street occupants like John Major and Margaret Thatcher were invited. The Republicans - an anti-monarchy group was not that impressed, calling the whole affair a sham and a photo-shoot opportunity. The Sierra Herald joins many within the UK and all over the world in wishing the newly-married God's richest blessings and a home in which the fear of the Lord reigns supreme. Congratulations.

Just a reminder of life under AFRC junta rule. Criticise the junta then and you are tagged an enemy to be a target of the armed killers; do that again even now under the Koroma-led AFRC Mk2 and you become not only anti-government and "unpatriotic", but a full-fledged and paid-up member of the opposition SLPP shadow cabinet!!!!

Wednesday April 13, 2011 - Ouattara is now President and promises to bring perpetrators to justice - whose justice? Replacing the devil with lucifer again?

Former Ivorian President Gbagbo refused to heed the warning signs, refused to accept the many offers to smooth things over in the country and in the end had to taste the bitter pill of humiliation and the loss of power. The battle to have him removed showed just how well-fortified and armed Gbagbo and his supporters were and it would seem that had it not been for air strikes by the UN and French forces, the New Forces or new Republican army backing Ouattara would have had quite a fight on their hands. And now...he, Ouattara has promised to have an investigation into the many reported cases of mass murders and that he would not shield anyone found wanting. If Ouattara wants to be believed, he has to start from 2002 when forces from the north tried to remove Gbgabo. The Sierra Herald raised concerns at the time about fears of cleansing of one sort or the other that was going on in rebel-held areas as well as asking that Gbagbo be held accountable for his xenophobic attacks on foreigners especially West Africans living in the areas under his control more so in the commercial capital Abidjan. Even as Gbagbo's so-called palace was ransacked as Ouattara supporters were celebrating, there are reports that the nights witness armed men carrying out killing and looting revenge missions aimed at perceived Gbagbo supporters. We hope it would not be like the AFRC press statements that Nigerians are "our brothers" even as they carried out massive human rights abuses on them along the Sackville Street business area of Freetown in 1997.

Thursday April 7, 2011 - VP Sam Sumana should resign and be in the dock over the sacking of Prisons Director Showers. What was his game plan?

When the Sierra Herald received the news that the Vice President had sacked the Director of Prison Mr Moses Showers after that Sunday December 5, 2010 jail break at Pademba Road, we questioned this line of action knowing that the political assistant to the President had no such power and that if that was the wish of the government, then it would be the duty of the Head of the Civil Service to do that after the appropriate investigations into the matter. It is not the business of the Vice President to sack any civil servant out of hand as he did in the case of Prisons Director Moses Showers - a top Civil Servant. According to the online Standard Times a committee set up by the government of which Sam Sumana is Vice President has now come out with a report and a number of recommendations, one of which states

In light of the above and the evidence brought before the Committee we recommend that Government revisits the decision taken resulting in the termination of the erstwhile Director, Mr. Moses Showers.  This is particularly so as it has been proven that Mr. Showers was the key champion of the Prisons Reform agenda.  This was evident in the interview held with the Justice Sector Development Programme Safety and Security Component Manager, Robert Bradley and correspondence from the Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service in the United Kingdom, Mr. Michael Spurr who paid a mentoring visit to the Prisons a week before the jail walk.

We say no more...and will advise the government to take a good hard look at what governance is all about when it comes to the maintenance of law and order for the public good. We would urge the government to investigate allegations that some politicians have taken it upon themselves to order members of the security forces (police and army) to effect arrests and detentions of perceived political opponents. This is wrong and contrary to good governance principles. Is Interior minister Tarawallie reading and listening?

Monday April 18, 2011 - Goodluck Jonathan is declared the winner of Presidential polls and calls on losers to help him build a more democratic and prosperous Nigeria.

Nigeria's incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan has been declared the winner and hence President of Nigeria after the country's national electoral body decalred that he had secured 57 percent of the votes, a percentage that puts him clearly in the lead thus eliminating a second round of voting. The vote for election of the President was held on Saturday April 16 2011 after elections after Parliamentary elections a week earlier on April 9. Voting dates had to be postponed by a week after the national electoral commission admitted that sticking to the dates of 2nd and 9th April would be quite difficult if not impossible given the logistics problems of ensuring that voting materials were in place and on time. Nigeria has to be credited for the sense of maturity displayed as all the main political parties backed this decision by the electoral body headed by academic Prof Attahiru Jega. The poll has been described by observers as largely free and fair and a reflection of the will of the people and demonstrates just how important it is for the independent national electoral body to be truly independent and trusted by all parties taking part in the democratic process. The proclamation of Goodluck Jonathan as winner sparked riots in the north of the country where politicians are thought to have hypnotised the people into believing that it was the turn of someone from the north to get his chance in Aso Rock. President Goodluck Jonathan has paid tribute to the losing candidates, condemned what he called the unnecessary violence and asked losing party leaders in the country's effort to combat the ills of society - corruption, the lack of transparency in government and to give Nigeria a new image. The Sierra Herald congratulates all Nigerians for their determination in making these elections what one observer describes as "the best so far for Nigeria". Floreat Nigeria.

Monday April 4, 2011 - The sun has set on a great revolutionary, journalist and a man who truly cared for a country he loved - Sierra Leone

The nightmare finally became a reality....rumours doing the rounds over the death of veteran journalist Richard Olu Awoonor-Gordon - Richie Olu Gordon - Olu Gordon - or just plain Olu to his friends and many acquaintances - sadly became a reality. Richie Olu Gordon was no more having passed on to the great beyond - a journey each and everyone of us sojourners on Planet Earth will have to make one day. Here was a man who lived through it all - watching in horror as a country he loved with unparalleled passion sank lower and lower into a serfdom created by the suppressor, the human rights abuser, thieves, rapists and murderers as well as a cabal of people who would rather have a subservient and non-complaining nation to one where all were free to enjoy from the resources of the only country they could call theirs - Sierra Leone. Richard Olu Awoonor Gordon saw how a once proud nation was forced to her knees, forced to become a nation of the deprived while the few subverted all things good in the pursuit of personal gains at the expense of the people. His patience wore even thinner when on May 29th 1997 a bunch of murderers and rapists wearing the colours of the national army overthrew the democratically-elected government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and this after he and other like-minded activists campaigned against the Maada Bio-led NPRC junta that had wanted to prolong military rule. He was in town, saw it all, the massive human rights abuses of the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil otherwise known as the beasts and must have vowed that he would always throw the spotlight on all those who in one way or the other encouraged the beasts of no nation to hold on to power.

Richard Olu Awoonor-Gordon - the Sierra Herald prays the Good Lord in His infinite mercy will grant you the eternal rest only He can give.

Rest In Peace

AMEN

March 8, 2011 - Oh Zainab...poor Zainab Bangura...shunned by even the "dreg-men" of the clan of AFRC-supporting opportunists she helped propel as "diplomats".

Her name no longer adorns the pages of the AFRC MK2 internet flying toilets. Her name has now become a pariah symbol on their pages, yet it was this same woman they were willing to praise to high heavens, reporting on her every movement, on her every flight as she enjoyed the perks of being the country's chief of diplomats. Even though other press houses kept pointing to the failures of Zainab Bangura as Foreign Minister in the running of the ministry as well as her handling of gifts and scholarships and those so rewarded because of their APC affiliation, all the AFRC Mk2 outlets were on the lookout to disguise the real nature of things that were going on at the ministry. When the India rice deal was exposed, they quickly rushed to deny things even though it was apparent to Sierra Leoneans on the ground that Zainab Bangura had got the President's brother involved, getting away with a million US dollars in dues. No, not one criticised Zainab Hawa Bangura until Information minister Ibrahim Ben Kargbo got it into his head that he can best articulate the lies of his government and lobbied for Zainab's post. Zainab Hawa Bangura is now Health and Sanitation Minister and even if she succeeds in getting rid of all the malaria-causing mosquitoes in Sierra Leone, she would be ignored by the media scrum oops sorry scum of AFRC Mk2. And the Sierra Herald had to take a second look after seeing this important development story on the AWOKO pages - this is a story that could have hit the headlines...but no, not this time because it concerns Zainab Hawa Bangura erstwhile political head of the ministry of foreign affairs and now head of a mere ministry of health - and this despite Pujehun allegedly an opposition stronghold and secondly this is one big leap in President Koroma's much-trumpeted concern for maternal health care in Sierra Leone.

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Tuesday April 19, 2011 - 40th anniversary of the Stevens Republic - Forty years ago today, Sierra Leone found itself a republic as Siaka Stevens consolidated autocratic rule and gave the green light to violence and the elimination of perceived political opponents.

If Siaka Stevens had had his way in later years as he did during most of his despotic rule Sierra Leone would not have been preparing for the celebration of its 50th year after independence from colonial rule. The monster was so desperate to rewrite history and eliminate any success attributed to his nemesis, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, the SLPP that during his rule April 19 was the celebrated day putting April 27 into the dust bins of history. This was the day declared as a Public Holiday with the population made to believe that a country called Sierra Leone really achieved independence on April 19, 1971 when Siaka Stevens declared Sierra Leone a republic. This was the day when Siaka Stevens would make his customary broadcast to the nation praising the achievements of the APC with civil servants, academics and all who should have known better fawning at the feet of the man whose action while in power brought ill-will to a nation that was as rich as it was prepared to give any smooth talker an opportunity. It took courage and a sense of direction for another APC leader to reverse the Stevens' deception and once more made April 27, the real day of the country's independence. Fault him on whatever you will, but it was during the reign of the man who was deceived and betrayed by people he trusted that April 27 once more gained prominence in national history. That was the late Joseph Saidu Momoh.

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The countdown begins - yet the figures dont add up and we are not talking about money that is being stolen under the guise of celebrating 50 years of independence

President Ernest Bai Koroma and his gang have been busy, very busy - trying to give the impression that it is his rule of less than four years that has transformed Sierra Leone from an ill-run Sparta to a haven of prosperity, development and heaven on earth. Indeed it is not uncommon nowadays to read pages and pages on the internet extolling the virtues of the Ernest Bai Koroma Agenda for Change mantra as if the whole process was his idea quite forgetting to tell Sierra Leoneans that this Agenda for Change is the second phase of the UN recovery programme for Sierra Leone. To give it the official UN name - The Second Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP II) 2008-2012. Page after page of his paid liars harp on 11 years of SLPP rule and three years of Ernest Bai Koroma which would give the impression that Sierra Leone's post-independence history was only 14 making it 15, if you will...and yet it is this same government and her gbatolites who are now boasting about a Golden Jubilee - 50 years....so what happened all the other years in the country's history? Time to tell our children and children's children the true history of 50 years of independence, 50 years after getting rid of the shackles of colonialism - never mind the new oppressors now stealing the peoples' wealth and basic freedoms.

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May 1, 2011- Breaking News... - Osama Bin Laden dead - killed by US forces in Pakistan.

US President Obama has told the American people and the world in a special address from the White House that special forces acting on intelligence have succeeded in infiltrating the hiding place of Osama Bin Laden and killed the man the US had always blamed for the 9/11 attacks and other atrocities aimed at US and other targets all across the world. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has welcomed the news and said that this will give some relief to the relations of victims killed by Al Quaeda operatives. He and the US President, despite the feeling of success, have warned of the need to be more vigilant "of revenge attacks" in the wake of the taking out of the man who was believed to have been the commander of Al Quaeda operations against perceived US and other Western targets. Former US President George Bush and Bill Clinton have welcomed the news as large crowds celebrated outside the White House.