By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
Assets belonging to some officials who served under the government of Ernest Bai Koroma have been confiscated and handed over to the State as part of the recommendations made of the Commissions of Inquiry (COI).
The announcement was made at a press briefing organized by the Office of the Attorney General in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Communications on the 1 December, 2022 at Guma Building in Freetown.
In his statement, the Solicitor General at the Court of Appeal, Robert Kowa noted that when President Julius Maada Bio took over governance there was a White Paper published regarding persons of interest from the past government that allegedly misappropriated funds, following recommendations by the COI. He said there are people who challenged the recommendations or the report at the Court of Appeal as provided for by the constitution.
He further said that, there are 110 (one hundred and ten) cases in the court of appeal with 40 of them having been dealt with, and records of 6 of them prepared and filed. He also said that the Court of appeal has had some of the cases filed, or judgment delivered.
Lawyer Kowa stated that some of the appeals were in favor of the State and some against. He said appeals will be heard by the Supreme Court after the Chief Justice would have empaneled the judges that will hear them.
He emphasized that the government has been able to recover over 10 billion Old Leones (ten billion Leones) and substantial amount of dollars which were not utilized in a proper way, and that decisions have been taken on what the present government could do with those recovered funds.
He also said that the government has provided a special account for those funds, noting that, there are some people that have decided to pay to avoid court.
The Solicitor-General pointed out that they went to court so that they could be very thorough with procedures of the COI. He quoted sections of the constitution which mandated them to proceed with the confiscations and forfeiture of properties to the State.
He said, they made an application and the order was granted to them for persons of interest to forfeit properties they acquired of which they could not explain how they got them. He went on to say that, they also secured an order for the cancellation of any document that has the name of that individual who was investigated by the COI and found wanting. He added that, they also had orders for the said properties to be vested in the state which he said is the first time it is happening in the history of Sierra Leone.
“We have utilized the services of the office of the Under-Sheriff and we have secured certain properties for which surveys have been done and conveyances prepared for them to be vested in the State,” he said.
Kowa explained that they confiscated properties of Leonard Balogun Koroma situated at Alsheik Drive, Gbanbayilla, Hill Station and at 1 Takoradi Corner in Yengema, Kono. He also confirmed seizure of the assets of the late Momoh Conteh located at 8 Robert Street, Hill Top at Hill Station and Sussex.
Properties of deceased Dr. Minkailu Bah at 11 Belewa Drive, off Lumley Road, Freetown and Abdul Ignosi Koroma of Teko Barracks Road in Makeni were all seized.
He hastened there is no stay of execution against any of the assets ordered for seizure. He further said they are also pursuing those who are to refund certain monies to the state, noting that the frozen accounts of those persons of interest are almost empty.
“So, since we cannot reach the physical cash of those people, that is why we are chasing their properties that are equivalent to the cash stolen,” he said.
There were three COI held at the Special Court building in Freetown that made recommendations that are being acted upon.
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