By Tanu Jalloh
The Criminal Investigations Department of the police yesterday called in the special adviser to President Ernest Bai Koroma and questioned him on a deal to dispose of waste materials from Lebanon into Sierra Leone.
Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, who was briefly interrogated inside the crime office at their headquarters on Pademba Road for his role in thewaste scandal, was later released to state house, according to a police source.
In a letter, dated 7 November, signed by Mr. Kargbo in his capacity as Special Adviser to the president and addressed to a Dutch Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands, he cautioned that: “it should be noted that the President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has the final say on this matter”.
“If the ministry of trade and industry, foreign affairs and the office of the chief of staff agree on the legality of the transaction, there will be no difficulty to sign an agreement between the government of Sierra Leone and your chamber”, the letter stated.
State House on Saturday 9, January 2016 issued a statement in response to the publication by As-Safir Newspaper that the Lebanese foreign ministry had already received a letter from Freetown accepting their proposal to dump some toxic free waste into Sierra Leone.
“Government wants to make it abundantly clear that it has not agreed to accept waste from Lebanon and has not authorised any official of state to convey approval to that effect,” the government release said, adding that the public would be kept informed about progress in the investigations surrounding the said transaction.
A senior government official told Politicothat the whole issue was being “overplayed by some people who derived pleasure in the misery of other people”. He said although that may not be clear at the moment but there was a concern among some people who felt IB Kargbo could become even more powerful in parliament. He is being mooted to lead the party in parliament.
The 72 year-old journalist cum politician, who recently won the parliamentary elections in Constituency 030 in Makeni, north of the country and the stronghold of the governing party, was very powerful when he served as minister of information and communications between 2008 and 2013.
(C) Politico 13/01/16
