Lawless Minister should face the law!

I read an article in your today’s edition with a banner headline: “For beating soldier – police vow to charge Health Minster.” In the article the author wrote: “Information privy to this press reveals that police personnel attached at “B” Divisional Headquarters headed by no-nonsense Chief Superintendent of Police, William Fayia Sellu, has vowed to press charges against the apparently lawless Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation Mohamed Daudis Koroma (in photo) for orchestrating the merciless beating of a Navy soldier on Saturday August 7^th 2010.”

The author furthered that : “Police say that they have obtained a statement from service man Sheku Bao and his witness on how Minister Koroma physically assaulted a serving RSLAF for merely cautioning him to give way to other users of the road whilst driving on the usual traffic prone Kissy Road in the congested eastern part of the city. The rather arrogant minister we are made to understand took offence and unleashed terror on the soldier that led to Sheku being hospitalized after receiving public beating from the security guard of Mohamed Koroma.”

My take on the unfortunate incident is that, the LAWLESS MINISTER, if found wanton, should face the laws of the land. This is not the first time police and military officers are being humiliated and degraded by government authorities.

This rather uncouth practice of openly beating officers first came to the fore in the late 1970s, when a then cabinet minister, Hon. Sembu Fornah, under the notorious rule of Dr. Siaka Stevens, slapped a female police officer at the Lungi International Airport.

Whether the laws of Sierra Leone prescribed punitive measures for such dishonourable behaviour by the political hierarchy or not, a good precedence, worthy of emulation was set then by the erstwhile dictator, Siaka Probyn Stevens; the then powerful politician was immediately sacked.

The late S.B. Marrah also slapped a Police Sergeant, 410 Francis Sorie Kamara while he (the police sergeant) was executing his official duties in 2001. As Majority leader in Parliament and his strong links with all influential men and women in the SLPP, S.B. faced the law.

It was at that time I admired ex-President Kabbah. He said at one point that he had been under pressure over S.B. Marah’s case. He said people wanted him to intervene and free Marrah from the police net. But he said he would never intervene in such matters. The powerful Koinadugu politician was therefore dragged to court.

When the S.B. Marrah saga was making headlines in most of our dailies here, Mohamed Koroma who was then the Managing Editor of the Pro-APC Newspaper, The African Champion took the lead to call for justice in the case of the officer slapped by S.B. Marrah.

Although I have nothing against Mohamed D. Koroma, I think he believes he succeeded in pulling down prominent people in society.  Former President Kabbah, former V.P, Solomon Berewa, Momodu Koroma, Dr. Prince Harding, Dr. Sama Banya, John O. Benjamin, John Karimu, former Bank Governor, Dr. Rogers, Kanja Sesay (NaCSA) Late Capt. Patrick Kemokai (Ports Authority), former SLRA boss, Ishmael Kebbey, former Commercial Bank Boss, Mohamed Kakay, former Customs Controller, Nat Cole, prominent Lebanese and Indian businessmen have been victims of Mohamed Koroma’s blackmailing since he jumped into journalism from ” Mabayla Wharf.” He went scot-free under the guise of Free Press.

Today, the President as grateful as he is, decided to give him an appointment. I have known President Koroma since we were teenagers in Makeni. He fears God so much that, he hardly hurts somebody. To be candid, Koroma has used his paper to promote Ernest Koroma and the APC since 2002 at the detriment of the SLPP and the nation. I think Mohamed was only compensated to be appointed as Deputy Minister. But we all know he doesn’t deserve it. Like the author pointed out in his article “I don’t blame him because he is not ministerial material since he could not express himself with words, he always prefers using his fist and physic to settle matters”. That explains exactly that Mohamed Koroma is, an uneducated minister. This man, I was told, has always embarrassed government. Each time he speaks in public, he would make big grammatical errors. “He embarrassed the First Lady, Mrs. Sia Koroma when both of them went to attend the Global Conference on Women which was held at the DC Convention Center last June. He made a lot of public blunders in the presence of the First Lady and high profile dignitaries.”

So, if I were Mohamed, I would have told the President to sponsor me for further studies at Fourah Bay College or overseas, instead of accepting an appointment. This Deputy Minister of Health, I was told by a confidant to President Koroma (name withheld) that he is a “big disappointment” to the President.

“I would have appointed him to be the Health Minister since I fired Sheku Koroma, but I have received complaints from different quarters that he is not up to the task. And I have proved that in several occasions, both at Cabinet meetings and other important places,” the President was quoted to have said to his confidant.

The President, the confidant continued, “Is now aware that most of the positive articles written in the newspapers about Mohamed Koroma are paid-up articles.”

As a man who calls himself a journalist, I was surprised to read in the same paper a threat by the minister. Read on: “Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Health in a mobile phone conversation with the Editor of this press, Mr. Richard Bockarie, threatened to silence him for life, a threat that has been reported to the police owing to the seriousness of it, and as well as the fact that the Minister has exhibited such tendencies even in public.”

Well, I think it is also high time for the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) to investigate this allegation by Mr. Bockarie, if it is anything to go by, then the Minister should be denounced by SLAJ like it was done in its Press Release issued on 29^th July this year: “The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists hereby denounces in the strongest of terms the despicably rude behaviour of the Managing Director of Zenith Bank Sierra Leone, Oby Ikeh Unekwe to a journalist who simply called her to fact-check her story.”

SLAJ stood firmly behind its member until the Nigerian Bank Director apologized and later left the country. I think if Bockarie informs SLAJ officially about this matter, I have no doubt in the Umaru Fofana administration, they would take appropriate action.

The bottom line is, I think Koroma should be investigated by the police without any political interference. Like any other Sierra Leonean, he’s not above the law.  If Sembu Fornah and S.B. Marrah didn’t get Presidential protection after assaulting some of our noble men and women in the Force, why Mohamed Koroma should not face the laws? Mr. President! We are watching.

Buya Koroma, Freetown

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