News

Happy New Year to you! We hope 2021 will be a much better and more progressive year than 2020 was. That was a year which we would love to forget but impossible to forget. It was, by far, the worst the world has seen certainly in our lifetime.

For us at FreeMedia Group (the publishers of Politico Newspaper) the year was very challenging like it was for all other media outlets. Advertising was few and far between, sales dropped considerably, while production costs increased exponentially with some suppliers using Covid19 as a fig leaf for their price increases.

By Francis H. Murray

The recently published Auditor General’s report has placed the country’s COVID-19 response outfit on the spot over its reported inability to account for certain items procured in 2020 for its operations.

According to the Deputy Auditor General, Tamba Momoh, items procured by National COVID-19 Emergency Response Center (NaCOVERC) which included 47 touchscreen Intel Laptops, a 50 KVA generator and vehicles were not the exact ones delivered for inspection during the audit.

By Mabinty M. Kamara

The Sierra Leone Police has in a press statement warned against sand mining at the Hamilton community and other restricted coastal areas in the Western Area district of Freetown.

“It has come to the notice of the Sierra Leone Police that some unpatriotic people have the habit of engaging in illegal sand mining at Hamilton and other restricted coastal areas in the western rural district” the release states.

It warns defaulters to desist forthwith of face arrest and prosecution.

By Francis H. Murray

Engineers rebuilding the Savage Street Bridge have assured that all major work on it has been completed with indications that the street will be reopened to vehicular traffic by the end of January.

The Project Manager, Engineer Patrick Masuba, could not give a specific date for the opening of the bridge but noted that plans were on to possibly merge its opening with that of the Limkokwing-Regent Road which is tentatively slated for the 31^st of January 2021.

By Prince J Musa in Kenema

A security guard at Beowulf Security Agency, Peter Lebbie is currently on the run for allegedly stealing seven million Leones from the EDSA Kenema office where he was deployed to guard.

The incident, say officials, occurred on the night of January 5 this year.

David Moigboi Lahai, Meters Supervisor at EDSA office in Kenema told Politico that the money was payment made by customers for the prepaid metres on the previous day.

By Politico staff Writer

President Julius Maada Bio has awarded Sierra Leonean passports to   22 African Americans after they were accorded citizenship of the country.

The African-Americans, according to a State House press release, traced their origin to Sierra Leone through DNA results, most of them with roots from Bo and Tonkolili districts. 

By Prince J Musa in Kenema

The Kenema City Council has unveiled its development plans for 2021 while highlighting successes and challenges of 2020.

Addressing journalists at the council’s end-of-year briefing at the Kenema city conference hall, Mayor Thomas Karim Baio said the council was able to rehabilitate two markets to improve the business environment. He said that among other things they also constructed twenty-two culverts and managed solid waste well in 2020.