By Politico Staff Writer
The Publicity Secretary of the All Peoples Congress (APC) party, Sidi Yaya Tunis has said their party could not in any way be involved in leaking to the public the telephone conversation between Former President Ernest Bai Koroma and the Inspector General of Police, Ambrose Sovula in relation to the confusion around the former president’s residence in Makeni, as officials from the Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC) attempted to interview him on issues connected to his tenure of office.
Crowds had gathered around Koroma’s residence in Makeni last week, which ACC officials claimed prevented them from going into the residence of the former president for the planned interview. Footage of Masquerades and hundreds of people with objects strewn across the street leading to Koroma’s house went viral on social media, scenes that polarized opinion in the country.
Koroma’s aides put a call through to the IGP to negotiate a way out of the standoff. It was the detail of this discussion that was leaked.
While the government has refused to comment directly about it, reference at personal level by individual government officials indicate a blame game.
The telephone conversation between the two men which was widely shared on social media caused quite a stir, prompting the Office of the former President to issue a statement expressing his displeasure over the whole incident.
In a telephone interview with Politico on Thursday, Tunis said leaking of the conversation was a “coordinated conspiracy to target and tarnish the character of the former President, and maliciously embarrass him and others in the party’’.
Asked if Koroma’s side could not have made the conversation public with the hope that it will work in their favour, the APC spokesman dissociated the party from the leak, saying that the distinct female voice in the background coming from the side of the Police chief was indicative that he was not alone.
Tunis took strong exception to what he said was the recording of the former president without his consent, and have the said phone discussion released to the public the next day. He said Sierra Leone’s democracy has been hailed across the world but expressed regret that it is deteriorating and that the country is sliding into what he called ‘’autocracy and dictatorship’’.
He said it is ‘’unwise and impossible to weaken the opposition’’, as it would “not augur well for the country’’. Tunis called for the International Community to pay close attention to what is happening in Sierra Leone.
The Office of the former President on the 11th October issued a strongly worded statement describing the leaked conversation as a ‘’deliberate breach of protocol and cowardly betrayal of trust’’, and requested for an impartial and speedy investigation into the source of the leak.
Police Spokesman, Superintendent Brima Kamara, when reached by Politico to inquire about progress of investigation into the matter, categorically stated that he had not even seen the statement of the ex-president and refused to comment on the issue further.
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