The UK Government has, in what can only be seen as a slap in the face for the thieving cabal led by one Ernest Bai Koroma chipped in using UK tax payers money to help a reckless and uncaring government stem the rising tide of infections and deaths arising from a cholera outbreak that need not have taken such a devastating toll had the authorities taken due care and diligence when the local media in Sierra Leone started reporting the outbreak of the disease in a number of districts.

True to form, the smoke and mirrors demagogue at State House wishing to hear what is pleasing to his wax and praise-singing-encrusted ears dismissed the reports and instead was smiling all the way at "reports" by his hired minions, shameless bootlickers to the core, that all was well and that any report of anyone dying of  cholera was a plan hatched, lies manufactures by - not only the main opposition SLPP, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, but "enemies of the state who have failed to report favourably on "the enormous strides" by His Excellency the Dr Dr Dr Ernest Bai Koroma (Div 3 allowed to pass - FBC)

Britain's Development Minister Andrew Mitchell, on the DfID website stated - and we could not help but notice a somewhat imperial gloat -

“The cholera epidemic in Sierra Leone is fast becoming a crisis, with millions potentially at risk. The UK is – for the first time – activating the Rapid Response Facility, its network of private sector and aid experts to make sure we get aid to where it is needed, fast. “Not only will our response be rapid, it will be efficient. We will monitor closely to make sure every penny of British aid achieves results and supports those in dire need. Urgent action is required to halt the spread of disease and save lives – Britain is leading the way.”

Meanwhile, the thieving cabal has been busy gloating over just how much resources its members have fleeced from the poor tax payers and people of Sierra Leone making sure that reports by the Audit Office requesting that large sums unaccounted for be returned to State coffers go largely ignored. They are now busy, very busy preparing double figures for the next UN General Assembly meeting, and with elections round the corner in November, we would not be surprised if the coffers get emptied on the way to New York. We would not be surprised if once again the Head of Corruption Incorporated, aka Ernest Bai Koroma Phd; SSQ; ZQG; ZOGODA; TTY etc etc...Div 3 - Allowed to Pass is accompanied by his OGI Chief of Deception one Khadija Sesay on a mission "to sensitise Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora" about the great works of her master, the smoke and mirrors President.

There will be a time for reckoning...there will be a time.

Update - Sunday August 26, 2012

24 August 2012 --(Part of WHO Office in Sierra Leone Press Statement) Since the beginning of the year, Sierra Leone has recorded 12 456 cases of cholera, with 224 deaths (Case Fatality Rate of 1.8%). The rate of new cases has accelerated rapidly since the beginning of August. Ten of the country’s 13 districts are now registering cases with Western Area and Port Loko being the most affected.

Even as the number of deaths keep rising to more than the 200 mark with infections on the increase in this unprecedented cholera attack, we hear that Sierra Leone's representative to the United States one Bockarie Kortu Stevens, a previously hard-working, sympathetic, educated and we dare say someone who should know better, was busy, together with his ilk dancing the night away, eating and drinking with relish and sheer lust as compatriots in Sierra Leone succumb to cholera. Legend has it that while Rome burnt Nero fiddled but the last thing we would have expected from our representative to the United States was for him and his associates to arrange a lavish party in the name of fund-raising while Sierra Leoneans died horribly with many not getting the necessary attention from the health authorities. Dancing, dining and wining on the graves of the afflicted in Sierra Leone. Truly AFRC Mk2.

And this from a government that would have us believe that it cares....there will be a day of reckoning...one fine day!!!!!

Tuesday August 21, 2012 - Ethiopian strongman Meles Zenawi is dead at 57.

After months of speculations, official denials and government media controls, the truth is finally out - the 57-year old strongman of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi is no more as it has now become official. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has died abroad where he has been receiving treatment for an ailment that still remains a mystery. The BBC reported the death of Mr Meles noting

 "The government spokesman said Mr Meles had died in a hospital abroad - but did not say exactly where or give details of his ailment. Speculation about his health mounted when he missed an African Union summit in Addis Ababa last month. Mr Meles took power as the leader of rebels that ousted communist leader Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991. He had dominated Ethiopian public life since the 1990s, as president and then prime minister. He was austere and hardworking, with a discipline forged from years spent in the guerrilla movement - and almost never smiled, says Elizabeth Blunt, the BBC's former correspondent in Addis Ababa."

Reactions have been swift. His close friends describe him as a democrat who loved all the trimmings of democracy and free speech while one of his critics described him on the BBC this morning as "the devil incarnate". Prime Minister Raila Odinga of Kenya described him as a pillar of the ideals of the African Union standing firm when the continent needed to send a message to rogue nations and expressed fears that with the passing away of Meles, Ethiopia  would become not only a fragile state but that the entire region would be in real danger of fragmentation and increased instability. Meles would be remembered for his readiness and willingness to send troops to trouble spots in the region including Somalia and South Sudan.

One of his critics in what looks like a conspiracy theory told the BBC that Meles died some time back and that the official announcement was delayed because of what he called the succession struggle on the Ethiopian power chess board.

We pray that the Good Lord will have mercy on his soul and that Ethiopia will regain her role as a bastion of democracy.

Saturday August 18, 2012 - Here's something to look forward to on Monday August 20, 2012 - the BBC's Panorama programme hones in on the leader of the Lord's Resistance Movement in Uganda Joseph Kony and the moves to bring him to book.

The US has joined in the hunt providing intelligence and a number of military advisers for a man whose modus operandi brings home to Sierra Leoneans and friends of the mother country, the atrocities committed by the RUF and the AFRC either as single murder groups or in joint operations to kill, maim, rape and dispossess Sierra Leoneans. Titled - Kony: Hunt for the World's Most Wanted and with a duration of 30 minutes, the BBC writes

Somewhere in the vast, dense jungles of central Africa, is hidden Joseph Kony, one of the world's most wanted men. For the past 25 years, Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army have waged one of the continent's darkest conflicts; using an army of abducted and brutalised children to kill and maim tens of thousands of people. But how has one man, said to take his orders from the spirit world, managed to escape capture for so long? In the wake of the infamous 'Kony 2012' internet campaign to bring him to justice this year, Bafta-winning reporter, Sorious Samura, investigates the myths surrounding Kony and travels to the front line of the fight to bring one of Africa's most bizarre and brutal leaders to justice.

On a profile page of Joseph Kony, the BBC has this

A former Catholic altar boy from northern Uganda, Joseph Kony has waged war in central Africa for more than two decades. He claims that his Lord's Resistance Army movement has been fighting to install a government in Uganda based on the Biblical 10 Commandments. But his rebels now terrorise large swathes of the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic, and he is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Regional armies are trying to hunt them down with the help of 100 US soldiers. Mr Kony was due to sign a peace deal with the Ugandan government in 2008, but peace talks fell apart because the LRA leader wanted assurances that he and his allies would not be prosecuted.

So make it date with the BBC's Panorama on Monday, August 20, 2012

Tuesday July 31, 2012 - Christiana Thorpe does it again - puts both feet where they should never be as she increases fees for Sierra Leoneans wanting to contest for various political posts. Be careful, very careful Christiana lest it be upon your head that it was you who disenfranchised Sierra Leoneans in their own God-given country.

Dr Christiana Thorpe has done it again. Without consulting all stake holders in the political process in Sierra Leone, she has gone ahead and increased the fees, a hundredfold for Sierra Leoneans wanting to hold elected political office in their own God-given country, Sierra Leone. And to add a splash of acid to the woes of Sierra Leoneans who stand to be disenfranchised, she has, without any careful consideration given what she thinks is one good reason, but which in reality is a flawed, very flawed if not an unpatriotic one. That she had compared regional figures and so must use the same formula here.

We would urge Dr Thorpe to give the public a report of the consultations she held with stakeholders in Sierra Leone and to publish figures from the sub-region that formed the basis of her undemocratic and sheer autocratic abuse of her office. It was this line of approach using a different route that caused Sierra Leone's troubles and we would not like to walk that path again because when you prevent people from exercising their rights as the APC did before, during and post-one party Sierra Leone days, Sierra Leoneans who felt that their rights were being trampled upon took the path, rather reluctantly, of the armed struggle which was later hijacked by a blood-thirsty, power-conscious and autocratic Foday Sankoh who eliminated all the educated core of the movement which he later called the Revolutionary United Front, the RUF. Sierra Leone has moved on and the least the country needs now is for people entrusted with key political positions to manipulate the rules according to the dictates of the ruling APC and we wonder why she is only lamely trying to increase the fees now.

It is a disservice to the people of this country to talk about increasing fees in line with other countries of the region. And this in a country where corruption is encouraged and practised to unprecedented levels from the seat of power State House where Ernest Bai Koroma heads the mafia of state looters to so-called independent bodies and the judiciary that comes under the manipulation of the puppet master at the very heart of government - the smoke and mirrors exponent of an Ernest Bai Koroma whose insatiable appetite for all things corrupt beats his former masters Stevens and Momoh.

Why did she not increase the fees in time for the 2007 General Elections? Are fee increases the only lesson she learnt from regional bodies? Why has she failed to tell the nation that the Electoral Commissioners from other regions condemned her for cancelling votes in the 2007 elections warning her that what she did was illegal, without any basis and could cause political instability. She failed to inform the nation what she was told in no uncertain terms - that only the courts have the right to nullify votes.

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FRIDAY JULY 27, 2012 - LET THE GAMES BEGIN

Finally the day is here - the official opening of the Olympic Games hosted by the United Kingdom. From today July 27 when the games proper begin and until August 12, 2012 athletes from all parts of the globe would be competing for medals in the gold, silver and bronze categories with the United States, Russia and China poised to occupy the top three posts and already even before the games are officially opened today by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, footballers have been dazzling spectators with results that could well have been predictable but given another angle by teams wanting to entertain even as they fight for the top medals.

The BBC website has done us a favour reminding us of Africa's performance in Games that were thought to have been hollowed ground, not meant for members from the continent. Kindly take a look at the pictures and believe what you see. Look at the 1996 winners, Nigeria and see if you can recognise any in the picture.

Before now, there had been glitches here and there as today drew upon the host countries, but with a determination to succeed the United Kingdom and all those involved have guaranteed a secure event as the greatest peace time security operations are put in place. The air space above certain areas of London are now no-go areas for aircraft - we mean including civilian transport aircraft and a couple of days ago, one airliner, due to communication error strayed into the no-go zone prompting fighters to be scrambled and ready for any eventuality.

Usual visitors to London would have noticed, apart from the many flags of the competing nations flying across the capital's streets, something rather unusual. The police in their special uniforms and markings to distinguish them as the UK Police are to be seen everywhere and with some even carrying arms, pistols as side arms and with submachine guns at the ready - just in case.

The general atmosphere is one of celebration and we daresay admiration and tonight as Her Majesty performs the official opening, we can comfortably say that billions would be watching on TV, the internet as well as other media outlets.

We wish everyone involved in ensuring the success of the games well.

We say - Let the Games begin and may the good sides win while losers get consoled knowing that in any competition there would be winners and losers.

We know you know already but just to reiterate - As the picture from one video posted on the internet shows - our very own Sierra Leone has a population of 5 and half million. We can only afford to train and sponsor 2 athletes despite reports that some 15, yes fifteen officials accompanied them. Long jumper Ola Isata Sesay (brave lady, proud lady - keep the flag flying in your hearts on behalf of a rich but poor country) carrying the flag is US-based and so if we are do the simple arithmetic, the other athlete Ibrahim Turay could be the only London Olympic participating athlete from the mother country. We wish them well in their endeavours.

Floreat London Olympics

One of Sierra Leone's greats, the one and only Hindolo Sumanguru Trye (Guru for those who knew him when he was a student activist) is no more and it is with a deep sense of sadness and regret that we have to announce his passing away in Freetown in the early hours of Thursday July 26, 2012. Reports from Freetown say he suddenly fell ill in the early hours of the morning, was rushed to hospital but was taken up by the Good Lord hence to part with all his earthly labours and woes and to find rest in His bosom.

Hindolo's passing away depletes the reserves of those who would stand up to political demagogues and tell them right in their face that they do not work in the interests of the people they had promised to serve. He would always be remembered for his stance together with students all over Sierra Leone, against the excesses of then Head of State Siaka Probyn Stevens as the rallying cry - "No College, No School" rang through the corridors of classrooms and homes as school children protested against the closure of Fourah Bay College by Stevens and his gang following open placard-waving protests and loud boos of rejection as University of Sierra Leone Chancellor Siaka Stevens rose to deliver a prepared speech at a Convocation ceremony at Fourah Bay College in the then leafy surroundings of that institution.

And the ceremony was being broadcast LIVE on SLBS radio.

A stunned Siaka Stevens, visibly shaken by the event was bundled back to the safety of his home while self-appointed vigilantes for the defence of the APC led by Kemoh Fadika and Alfred Akibo-Betts exhibited what they knew best against the student population - savagery that could only come out of perverted minds with Kemoh Fadika occupying the seat reserved for the highest of the college administration and declaring himself thus.

It was Hindolo Sumanguru Trye who was frog-marched to the studios of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service where he was forced by the authorities using the then ISU (now OSD) to read a statement advising striking students and school children in the "No College, No School" campaign to go back to their various institutions to resume normal school work. A massive crackdown and purge of the student and lecturer community especially at Fourah Bay College followed with the likes of Cleo Hanciles losing their jobs and like Hindolo eventually forced into exile.

Goodbye Guru and may the Good Lord grant you the peace only He can give.

Amen

Tuesday July 24, 2012 - Ghana mourns the passing away of President John Evans Atta Mills. Tributes pour in from all over the world - from the West African sub-region, throughout the continent to the wider international community as leaders expressed shock at the sudden announcement from the seat of power that the 68 year-old had passed on to the great beyond. He was a deeply religious man. We pray that the Good Lord will grant him eternal peace and rest.

He was a man we could comfortably call the reluctant politician. Reluctant but dogged once he had his eyes fixed on the top seat as he battled political opponents to succeed at the third time of asking having failed twice in Ghana's Presidential race but finally succeeding in the 2008 polls where he stood as his own man and no longer standing in the shadow of the mercurial Jerry Rawlings as a running mate.

Confirmation of the rumours that were doing the rounds in Accra this morning that something was gravely wrong with Prof John Evans Atta Mills came with a rather terse press statement dated 24th July from the Office of the President, the Castle-Osu, Accra which in part read:

"It is with a heavy heart and deep sorrow that we announce the sudden and untimely death of the President of the Republic of Ghana His Excellency Professor John Evans Atta Mills. The death occurred at the 37 Military Hospital this afternoon while receiving medical attention after being taken ill a few hours earlier."

A statement on the Official Ghana Government website stated among other key items that -

"President John Evans Fifii Atta Mills (21 July 1944 – 24 July 2021) was the third President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the ruling party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 election. He was Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings, and stood unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He was married to Ernestina Naadu Mills, an educator and had a son, Sam Kofi Atta Mills, with Ruby Addo.

US President Barack Obama's office issued a statement on the death of Prof Mills noting -

"It was with great regret that I learned of the passing of President John Evans Atta Mills of Ghana. I will always remember my trip to Ghana in 2009, and the hospitality that President Mills and the people of Ghana showed to me, Michelle, Malia, Sasha and our entire delegation. I was also pleased to host President Mills in the Oval Office earlier this year. President Mills tirelessly worked to improve the lives of the Ghanaian people. He helped promote economic growth in Ghana in the midst of challenging global circumstances and strengthened Ghana’s strong tradition of democracy. Under his leadership, the United States and Ghana deepened our partnership in the promotion of good governance and economic development. He was also a strong advocate for human rights and for the fair treatment of all Ghanaians. On behalf of the American people, I would like to offer my deepest condolences to the people of Ghana, and reaffirm the deep and enduring bonds between our democracies that President Mills helped to strengthen."

It will be recalled that the US President made his first visit to Africa in Ghana where among other engagements, he addressed all sections of the Ghanaian Parliament in a ceremony that was beamed all over the world.

A new President is now in place in Ghana. The Vice President John Dramani Mahama is now President of the Republic of Ghana after ceremonies performed by a hastily-recalled Parliament fulfilling the mandate of the Ghana constitution.

On July 9th and 10th the United Nations Economic and Social Council's (ECOSOC) held very crucial discussions on the theme "Accountability, Transparency and Sustainable Development - Turning Challenges into Opportunities" which was addressed by UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon, his deputy and a host of other international experts on corruption and its impact on countries and their peoples in the areas of good governance, security and development. More than 500 delegates, including government ministers and heads of civil society groups, international institutions and the private sector, attended the Council’s high-level segment, which focussed on boosting productive capacity, strengthening development cooperation and creating decent, sustainable work.

The UN Chief Scribe Ban Ki-Moon highlighted the horrors unleashed on the poor by corrupt governments, institutions and their functionaries when he stated -

"Usually the people with the least power bear the greatest cost. They must pay bribes for services that should be their right – such as a driver’s license or health care… or fair treatment by police or a fair hearing before an impartial court. Such corruption feeds criminality, it impairs economies, weakens democracy and fuels public distrust...neither peace, development nor human rights can flourish in an atmosphere of corruption. The impact of corruption is particularly profound in societies where the rule of law is fragile and institutions are weak...last year, corruption prevented 30 per cent of all development assistance from reaching its final destination. This translates into bridges, hospitals and schools that were never built, and people living without the benefit of these services. This is a failure of accountability and transparency. We cannot let it persist."

UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson also added his voice to the call for governments and others to be transparent and accountable and most importantly described corruption as a poison in the bloodstream of society.

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Friday June 29, 2012 - Samuel Williams, S O Williams, the AFRC/RUF junta operative who threatened to raze Freetown to the ground is the new head of the army. The jigsaw pieces fall into place as the magician at State House completes preparations for violence and intimidation in November elections.

Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma, the smoke and mirrors occupant of the top political seat in Sierra Leone has finally put in place the last piece in the jigsaw that would ensure that violence and intimidation would be his trump cards against the opposition before, during and after the November 17, 2012 elections. He has now appointed S O Williams a key military junta operative during junta oppression and repression rule in 1997/98 to head the military which effectively puts him in charge of the country's military forces as well as, crucially, in charge of those weapons which the State House magician would have us believe would no longer be used by the OSD - his party's armed wing masquerading as a part of a legitimate police force.

We had stated before that we do not believe the State House magician on efforts to pretend that the more than four million dollar worth of weapons would not be used by the police/security forces against the opposition before, during and after the November 17 polls. We had feared that until and unless these weapons, war weapons to boot, were put beyond the use of the security forces, there's no guarantee that the desperate cabal hoping for a second term for the magician would not use these weapons against the opposition, civilians believed by the desperadoes to be against the magician's desperate bid for a second term.

The appointment of a junta operative as S O Williams as head of the army is not good news for our fledgling democracy. S O Williams knew and condoned the numerous abuses committed against perceived opponents of the junta and must have heard of the numerous cases of murder, rape and arson that were being carried out by the junta and did nothing about it - even when he heard of the atrocities being committed against the "captured" female students that were held at the then OAU villas occupied by the likes of Alex Tamba Brima and Idrissa Kamara aka Leatherboot.

We would urge the desperate men and women of AFRC Mk2 parading as civilians who have no respect for the finer elements of democracy to take note of a part of President Obama's speech when he was in the Ghanaian Parliament. He stated amidst great applause that "Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions" and should be heeded by the Ernest Bai Koroma cabal that has now found a way of using those weapons against the opposition. We would also urge them to listen again to that speech, read and re-read certain sections as quoted below.

"First, we must support strong and sustainable democratic governments...governments that respect the will of their own people, that govern by consent and not coercion, are more prosperous, they are more stable, and more successful than governments that do not....this is about more than just holding elections. It's also about what happens between elections.

Time to bring in UN blue helmets with a no-nonsense mandate. There has to be more than the traditional Chapter 7 mandate regarding the rules of engagement.

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Friday June 22, 2012 - UN Security Council says it has been assured by President Koroma that the 4.5 million dollar arms ordered for use by the police have been transferred to the military as well as receiving a commitment from him that the November polls would be free, fair and transparent.

The UN Security Council team that visited the West African countries of Liberia, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone between 18 to 24 May 2012 has presented a report of its visit at the 6777th meeting of that body. The co-leader of the team that visited Sierra Leone on 23rd May was led by the South African representative on the Security Council Baso Sangqu. His report was submitted on his behalf as well as that of  ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom.

In his briefing, Ambassador Baso Sangqu told the Security Council that they met with President Koroma and some of his ministers as well as what he called "the people of Sierra Leone" which included civil society groups and other key players that are not a part of the smoke and mirrors theatrics manipulated by President Koroma. These were real down to earth people who feel and know the pulse of what really obtains on the ground in a country still trying to put a terrible history of lawlessness and unbridled violence in the realm of the past.

It is worth noting the observations of the UN team with regards to the pending elections and the purchase of the 4.5 million dollar worth of arms in a country where the vast majority of the people still find it difficult to get one square meal a day and where the health system is so laden with corruption, as with all other government entities, that getting any serious medical condition is a death sentence for the poor and unconnected.

First, the UN team noted

On May 30, 2012 Charles Taylor was sentenced by the Special Court for Sierra Leone to a fifty year jail term. His legal team was quick off the mark to say it would appeal the decision insisting that with Taylor now 64, it would mean a life sentence and that the court was not authorised to impose a life sentence. The Prosecution on the other hand had called for eighty years and has given notice that it would be appealing against the fifty year term - no doubt that team led by Prosecutor Hollis would want the eighty year jail and even more given all the revelations in court of how, because of Charles Taylor's support for the RUF and AFRC acting as single entities or in a joint enterprise as witnessed in the Peoples Army of the AFRC/RUF, these rapists, murderers, arsonists and terrorists wrecked havoc on a largely defenceless and unarmed civilian population.

It must be noted that despite the silent cries of the victims from the grave and on earth, the foot soldiers, the real men and women who carried out what Sentencing Judge Lussick described as  "some of the most heinous and brutal crimes recorded in human history" are still roaming freely in the streets and alleyways (Idrissa Kamara aka Leatherboot for example) of Sierra Leone sending signals to their victims that they are untouchable and cannot be reached by the law. Even though the victims recognise and can easily identify their tormentors, the situation existing in Sierra Leone where some of the key perpetrators are now a part of the Ernest Bai Koroma administration leaves much to be desired and makes a mockery, not only of justice, but of the national healing process the country so badly needs.

It was Ernest Bai Koroma who accompanied another of the mass murderers, one Eddie Kanneh who was the Eastern Regional "minister" under the AFRC/RUF and under whose leadership the politician B S Massaquoi and others were tortured, murdered and buried in a mass grave. Eddie Kanneh and others of his type now enjoy the protection of President Ernest Bai Koroma.

Allow us once more to bring you excerpts from the speech of Justice Lussick regarding the mindless terror visited on the civilian population.

"The scale and brutality of the crimes committed in Sierra Leone, as demonstrated by these individual incidents, is also clearly demonstrated by the code names given by the perpetrators to the military campaigns in which the crimes were committed. Names such as Operation Spare No Soul and Operation No Living Thing indicating, the indiscriminate killing of anything that moved, speak for themselves as to the gravity of the crimes committed...particularly reprehensible were the crimes committed against vulnerable groups. Girls and women were raped, subjected to sexual slavery, and in many cases unwanted pregnancy. Pregnant women were cut open to settle bets as to the sex of the unborn child. Child soldiers, both boys and girls, had their innocence stolen and were forced to commit murders, rapes, and mutilations at a very young age, their lives permanently marred by these traumatic experiences...elderly men and women, a particularly vulnerable group, were also affected by the crimes committed, their dignity violated by brutal attack and cruel treatment."

We would also like to add a slogan adopted by a number of these vicious people - "Kill Man No Law" - meaning that they would not be held accountable by any law thus giving them licence to murder any and all those who crossed their bloody path.

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According to Dr Dr more Dr Ernest Bai Koroma's doctrine on the dispensation of justice in a democratic society - the conviction of a perceived political and hence sworn opponent like Aziz Carew - is something that must be cheered, something that must be seen as the APC's manifesto of 2007 in which a number of promises were made to the people. And Aziz Carew is a Sierra Leonean who has no right to self-defence when he is attacked in his own home by government and party agents - and because he dared and his supporters dared to resist those deadly and brutal attacks, he was beaten to a state of coma from which he only recovered after treatment in hospital where he had to be put on intravenous fluids (drip).

Sierra Leone's all-knowing Gestapo Chief Francis Munu told the media, including international outlets that their target Mr Aziz Carew was pretending to be in a coma and as soon as the man recovered was whisked off to prison while his assailants walked free indicating to all and sundry, including representatives of the international community operating in Sierra Leone that with the right political connections (APC) impunity is let loose upon Sierra Leone once again after those terrible years in which Sierra Leoneans witnessed the laws of the land interpreted to suit State House and political parties in power.

Thursday March 29, 2012 - Cat out of the bag. Internal Affairs minister reveals that the weapons imported into the country are for use against the opposition SLPP. Ernest Bai Koroma government in real fix as he and his wolf pack try to justify the importation of military hardware for the sole use of the armed wing of the APC party, the OSD police force. BBC reports lay bare the lies, more lies and damned lies that form the bedrock of the smoke and mirrors Presidency. Another plan to use violence, extreme violence and intimidation to secure a second term exposed. Desperation, desperation and more acts of desperation.

During the course of the week, in the aftermath of the exposure of the Ernest Bai Koroma government's importation of weapons of war for the OSD, the armed wing of the APC using its cover as a wing of the police, key APC operatives including the Police Chief Francis Munu have tried without any iota of success to justify the purchase of these weapons by a country still trying to recover from the ravages of a brutal ten-year war. And this week following even more pressure on the government by the international community and citizens to explain why the military hardware was brought into the country for the sole use of the police, the Minister of Internal Affairs, one Musa Tarawallie has let the cat out of the bag. That the weapons were really meant for use against the SLPP, the main opposition party.

In a BBC report from Freetown broadcast on the Focus on Africa programme on Wednesday March 28, 2012 - the head of the police, Francis Munu stated, among many of his excuses for the importation of these weapons that -

“These are meant to provide static security guards at very vulnerable points – you know – such as residences of foreign diplomats. You know with the global threat of terrorism, occasionally, we are asked to step up security at various embassies depending on how threatened they feel. “

However the Internal Affairs Minister whose duties include supervision of the police did not mince his words when he was interviewed on a local radio station in Freetown. That was when he actually made what is being interpreted as a startling confession - to wit

"Those who illegally overthrew the All Peoples Congress government in 1992 have succeeded in taking over the opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party...and in life, you have to be looking at precedents - events that occurred and prepare yourself so that you are not overtaken. The government at the time was very weak so they were overthrown by junior officers. The equipment we have brought into the country for the police is to resist any eventuality. Let us go back to the 1992 coup."

Now you have it and that is why we are calling on the international community and more especially the United Nations Security Council that now that this has been brought to their attention that everything be done to ensure that the coming elections are free, fair and without any form of violence or intimidation.

We again urge the UN Security Council to approve the deployment of blue helmets in Sierra Leone as well as the imposition of a ban on the importation of further weapons into Sierra Leone - a country that is not at war, but is trying to consolidate the peace when President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah in 2002 declared that the war was over.

We do not have to wait for the deliberate murder, rape and violent attacks to intimidate peaceful citizens in the exercise of their rights.

Now is the time to save Sierra Leone.

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Thursday February 23, 2012 - Oh Ernest Bai Koroma and his minions - as we stated he was behind the Schulenberg affair and instead of coming out with the truth, has been manufacturing layers of lies until that photocopy of a document that is now doing the rounds became public...and yain, deafening silence...well and truly caught in the headlights of the truth, their greatest anathema.

And while trying to wriggle out of that we have these reminders of articles we had published relating to kidnappings, the movement of APC thugs in support of political violence and intimidation as well the politics of intolerance that saw one musician becoming a target of hate articles.

We know the APC and their tactics and we need to remind our detractors that whatever we publish has always been based on facts with documents to back whatever story we run. We do not believe and will never manufacture spurious "articles" aimed at keeping our pockets greased for we do not rely on handouts from the thieving functionaries of government and the APC party. We also know the APC and their tactics. We have seen them in action before during those dark days of Stevens and Momoh and we do know just how all good things relating to good governance were subverted to serve the APC and their leaders. Remember the days of "careless talk"? We do. The present crop of "shrill crickets" - beneficiaries of corruption - wanting to be heard even as their musical score sheets get incinerated in the ovens of truth have no idea of what their fathers did to anyone who opposed them - whether within or without the party. Remember the concept of "the unholy and evil trinity" of Stevens in the centre, flanked by Christian Kamara-Taylor and Sorie Ibrahim Koroma? We do and woe betide anyone who gets caught in the rivalry between S I Koroma and C A Kamara-Taylor. Nancy Steele, the APC activist found out to her discomfort when she placed her support base on C A Kamara-Taylor after she dared utter the condescending and "apartheid" phrase - "I will never have a Sorie be my mayor of the city of Freetown". "Sorie" was the blanket name for house helps, house "boys" who were employed for a pittance to help in household chores in many a home in Freetown. Sorie Ibrahim Koroma took this as a personal insult and ensured that Nancy Steele regretted making such a condescending and inappropriate statement.

One morning, during the rule of Siaka Stevens, reporters were hurriedly called to State House for an unplanned meeting between the Head of State and the press with many members of the Fourth Estate, guessing and second-guessing just what was about to be sprung on them. Another coup plot discovered/uncovered?

It was not the discovery or uncovering of a coup plot. Siaka Stevens had called in the press to tell them of his concern and the press could see the worry lines on the face of the President, to tell them of the murder of one Pa King of the Travellers Inn - an outlet that served as a somewhat cheap motel for visitors to Freetown, mainly from other parts of the country for a brief stay. A clearly perturbed Siaka Stevens told the press that he found it unacceptable that a man could no longer feel safe in his own home and was particularly disturbed at the way Pa King was dispatched to meet with his Maker. The poor man was strangled with his own bath towel.

When Musu Conteh was murdered by OSD personnel in Bumbuna, all he did was to hurriedly put together a team of his cronies to visit and try to smother the protests of workers whose right to protest were met with volley after volley of automatic rifle fire by a police force that appears to have been assured by the President that as long as they carry arms to wipe out people believed to give the government a bad name, they would not be prosecuted for these clearly extra-judicial instances of death-dealing. What President Koroma did was to visit the area later for a photo shoot opportunity with the owners/operators of the mining concern with a view, we believe, of reassuring them that as long as he, Ernest Bai Koroma PhD galore was in power, they had nothing to fear from Sierra Leoneans protesting against working conditions. (The recently re-armed OSD would be there to kill and maim all those who dared to protest - a right enshrined in the Constitution).

And then very recently the OSD, (the APC party's armed wing cloaked under the guise of a national police force) killed two youths in the east of the capital not a word, no expression of remorse of any sort came from Ernest Bai Koroma whose attitude towards murder by the OSD has given the impression that what obtains now in Sierra Leone is what obtained under the "Kill Man No Law" of rebels who laid waste vast tracts of Sierra Leone territory murdering, raping and looting at will.

We had reported previously on the UN Security Council's warning to the government over the use of disproportionate force in the handling of matters relating to unarmed civilians and others in confrontation with the law over rights and other issues - more so after the unearthing of a clandestine move to arm the OSD police with military-type war weapons.

The US government human rights report of 2011 on Sierra Leone has noted that even in that year there were recorded cases of such abuses and murders