Former head of state Captain Valentine Strasser has denied that he was ever deported from the United Kingdom where he spent part of his life studying after the countercoup that ousted him.
Strasser ruled Sierra Leone up to 1996 after seizing power in 1992. He became the world’s youngest head of state at the time.
After his nearly four year rule, he relocated to the UK where he underwent studies. But he faced difficulties there, all of which he blamed on negative press. He also was even attacked and an attempt was made on his life.
He later left the UK for Sierra Leone passing through The Gambia. But the popular view has been that the former National Provisional Ruling Council junta leader was deported by the UK authorities.
Strasser has now dismissed to claims in an interview with Politico’s Umaru Fofana. He said he left by his own accord and was never deported.
“I came home voluntarily…There was talk about deportation because deliberately I didn’t extend my visa because I had taken a decision to leave and I never wanted to continue to stay in the United Kingdom,” he said.
In the interview, Captain Strasser spoke about a wide range of other issues, including the decision to overthrow the government of the late Joseph Saidu Momoh, the execution of soldiers who allegedly staged a countercoup against him, and the running of his technical and vocational school at Grafton, near his home town of Orugu.
He defended his decision to remove that government and viewed his effort in upgrading the army as one of his achievements. He said the military under him was made capable to fight the RUF, which was then prosecuting a war against the APC-led government.
The 27 alleged coup plotters were executed by firing squad before their bodies were brought in front of a court martial which found them guilty, Strasser revealed.
He insisted that that was the standard when the state was at war.
“If the state had not been at war then it would have been different. The procedures would have been different. That’s what most people don’t understand,” he said.
In the UK Strasser took courses in law but he could not complete his academic work due to the troubles he faced.
He was even put through a mock trial, which was viewed as a precursor to send him to the International Criminal Court for his alleged crime. He said he was however acquitted and discharged on all the charges.
Captain Strasser told Politico that he even had to flee for his life after some when an unidentified person aimed at him with a gun. He said all that was because of bad press he got in the British media.
“They (UK press) made me look too bad as if I was some…typical stereotyping,” he said.
“That perhaps might have instigated somebody to make an attempt on my life. They did it twice in two different parks.”
(C) Politico 07/07/15
