The week just gone

As I mentioned on Friday former NPRC strongman Valentine Strasser broke his silence and came out with a bold statement in a CTN radio discussion. I did not listen to the programme but from those who did and from newspaper reports, Strasser was forthright and even arrogant. Yes, he said he gave the orders for the execution of Bambay and others by the authority vested in him at the time. He alleged that Bambay and others had been responsible for the deaths of many people and that therefore they had deserved to die. What do the proponents of the proposed witch hunt inquest have to say? Will they continue to point accusing fingers at Maada Bio and John Benjamin especially that Benjamin personally signed the warrant of execution? And when the ministers involved deny that it is a witch hunt why is the APC government giving a plum appointment to Karefa Kargbo who was the NPRC spokesman at the time, even if he was roundly qualified for it? (Photo: Dr. Sama Banya)

That notorious lying newspaper the African Champion even referred to John Benjamin as a murderer. Over to you then Messrs. Attorney-General and Minister of Information respectively. In an unrelated matter, perhaps someone should educate the same editor who has made himself the confidant and repository for grouses by prominent SLPP members, that Mary Robinson was the former President and NOT the Prime Minister of Ireland. Any newspaper editor worth his name would not make such a silly error.

I have repeatedly pointed out that Paul Kamara is a spent force and washed out serious newspaper editor and I am not playing with words; every time the name Thompson is mentioned, Paul pounces on the character and person of Justice Tolla Thompson, just as any mention of Jalloh immediately drives him into a frenzy over his allegation of corruption of the chief justice and her connection with the entire Cole clan especially the Tejan-Cole clan. He has become so obsessed with running down people that he appears to have lost the ability to discern or to distinguish and needs some education. David Keilie is not a politician, nor is he a Director of CEMATS, let alone being responsible for drawing up any agreement with Sierra Rutile. What is more he is NOT an aspirant for the SLPP leadership. Andrew Keilie of CEMATS is an aspirant for the flag bearer position in the SLPP and is not the Managing Director of London Minerals. My advice to Paul is that he gives up writing and concentrates on that which he appears to relish most these days.

Poor Musa Tarawali! The man tries much too hard to demonstrate to Obai that he Musa is much more of an APC than his boss. Readers may recall President Koroma’s first official visit to Bo after his election. The resident minister presented alleged representatives of some thirty thousand kamajors, a group that had been officially demobilised as far back as 2002 as people who had now transferred their loyalty to the President. They then collected cash but subsequent events in the region demonstrated that Musa Tarawali had fakayed poor Mr. President. The SLPP did not as much as wink at the publicity because we knew it was a stunt. The same Musa Tarawali allegedly gave the information of the SLPP mobilizing and training Kamajors somewhere in the Moyamba district with the aim of overrunning Freetown. Armed security personnel stormed the area with maximum force only to find out that the story was the mischievous imagination of someone. In yet another effort to demonstrate his loyalty and the popularity of the President in the district he had helped to mobilise cheering crowds from all over the region for his Excellency’s latest visit to Moyamba. In the process he allegedly commandeered mattresses from the Bo Government school which is a government school to accommodate his non Moyamba guests. And guess what happened! Many of those guests ‘borrowed’ the mattresses without anyone’s, least of all Musa Tarawali’s permission. The Minister of Education, Youth and Sports will no doubt go to his rescue with adequate replacements before the next school year which begins in September especially as the mattresses were the private property of the pupils. To quote Olu Gordon, ha. ha. ha.

Friday afternoon was full of rumours of the alleged death in India of former Vice President Solomon Berewa. It all happened because once more that lying liar of a newspaper the African Champion had published yet another blatant lie that the man was at the point of death. It took a lot of telephone denials until finally a press release to the contrary put paid to the unhealthy rumour. The same lie was told by Paul Kamara in his “mamie salone en pikin” column. We know death could come very suddenly to any of us but that is no license to spread such dirty rumours simply because a person has taken ill. Just after the lie began to spread like wildfire I called a very close mutual friend of the former Vice President and myself and the man confirmed that he had just put the telephone down from speaking to the man and that the death story was a lie. Lying is part of the stock in trade of the African champion; the editor lies with impunity and with absolutely no qualms. By the way in what way did the SLPP abandon Solo B?

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