STATE HOUSE AND THE JUDICIARY - THE LIES AND MORE LIES OF ERNEST BAI KOROMA

When the Wikileaks document on the cocaine plane seizure and its aftermath became known as links were made between the President and his meddling into the investigations, his gbatolites/shameless praise singers, in it for the money and positions with and in the government, were quick to shout down any such suggestion - that their god Ernest could interfere in the operations of the judiciary.

But denials from State House and his praise singers are in complete contrast with what obtains on the ground.

Who can forget his extremely corrupt and unprincipled former Attorney-General one Serry Kamal and his nolle prosequi card used as often as is necessary when the state (Executive) (read Ernest Bai Koroma) controlled the Judiciary - something barred by the present constitution that separates the three main arms of governance?

Who gave the order for the case against Idrissa Kamara aka Leatherboot to be dropped after Ernest became President? A case that had been investigated by the police who thought it fit to charge Leatherboot and others for the aggravated assault on Sierra Leonean Tom Nyuma as well as the theft of his personal belongings after that incident at that hotel in Bo?

Who gave the order that RUF spokesman Omrie Golley ensnared in a sting operation while allegedly trying to overthrow the Kabbah government be released and flown out of the country even though the police at the time had garnered enough evidence to put him on trial?

Who gave the order to the police not to arrest and charge former Transport and Communications minister Kemoh Sesay in that cocaine plane incident even as the police sought to execute a search warrant at his premises?

The broad daylight attacks on the main opposition SLPP headquarters in downtown Freetown is well-documented with video footage and pictures showing the President's killer buddy Leatherboot brutalising civilians of the opposition and in one was shown stamping on an opposition party supporter. Who has been giving instructions that perpetrators of this and other attacks against perceived opponents be put aside when the police mounted investigations?

Who has been putting the brakes on investigations into the India rice deal which benefited the relations of the President, his ministers and other close associates?

Who, in his campaign speech as well as his inaugural address as President of Sierra Leone stated that he would separate the offices of the Attorney-General from that of the Minister of Justice but still refused to do just that?

The answers to these and other acts against the constitution, the Executive meddling in the business of the Judiciary is - Ernest Bai Koroma - President of the Republic of Sierra Leone who also, among others, doubles as the new King of Corruption.

For the gullible and those with selective amnesia, please be reminded that State House had always interfered in the work of the Judiciary.

Reports abound of judges and those entrusted with the dispensation of justice regularly reporting on serious cases such as treason to the President while trials were in progress. Insiders within the APC "politburo" then only know too well how the President and his team decided the outcome of matters before the High Court even before judgement was delivered by equally corrupt judges.

And this was the way it was played out.

After deciding on those who are to be executed, say in a treason trial, the Presiding Judge would pass the guilty verdict on most of the accused with the prospect of them facing the gallows. What is played out in the Appeals and Supreme Courts at the time were mere smoke and mirrors as all the death sentences were, without fail, confirmed.

Now steps in the APC's infamous dirty tricks Prerogative of Mercy Committee - a body which ostensibly should be chaired by the Vice President as stated in the constitution, but which in reality was presided over by the President himself.

It is this "mercy" committee that decides opponents who should face the gallows.

One Paramount Chief N'Silk was said to have been fingered by Stevens himself because, according to inside sources, Siaka Stevens was angry with the Paramount Chief of because of his perceived lack of respect for President Stevens.

Another opposition politician, one Mr Thompson, of the Freetown East Three constituency at the time was fished out by the APC to face the gallows as he was deemed to have given the ruling party's F B Turay a hard run for his money.

And former Vice President Francis Mischek Minah paid the supreme price because he had been seen as a rising star in the APC in line to become the President.

Some inner core members of the party, in reality had never accepted him as a true APC faithful - more so as he got into the party after what was then known as the practice of cross-carpeting. They just did not like his meteoric rise.