PH
On Wednesday, a Sierra Leone court ordered the arrest of Samura Kamara, the opposition leader and runner-up in the presidential election last June.
The Court of Appeal “has ordered the immediate arrest of former All People’s Congress Party (APC) presidential candidate Dr Samura M.W. Kamara” for his alleged involvement in a transaction involving the sale of Sierra Leone government shares in a mining company in 2012.
Kamara was finance minister under then-President Ernest Bai Koroma at the time of the alleged offense.
Kamara’s lawyer could not immediately be contacted for comment.
Julius Maada Bio won the June 2023 presidential election, which Kamara finished second in. The result was disputed by the opposition leader.
The APC alleged that the presidential, legislative, and local elections were all rigged, and it chose to boycott the legislature and local councils.
In October, the government and the APC negotiated an agreement in which the APC agreed to cease its boycott in exchange for an end to politically motivated detentions and court cases.
Following his election to a first term in 2018, President Bio initiated an aggressive battle against corruption, which is rumored to be widespread in the country, as well as the wasting of public assets.
Several prominent Koroma administration officials were involved. The former ruling party, the APC, claimed “witch-hunt.”
Kamara has been on trial since December 2021 for allegedly embezzling more than $2.5 million in public funds during his tenure as foreign minister in a project to restore the consulate in New York.
Last month, skirmishes in Freetown were branded as a “attempted coup” by the administration.
During the early hours of November 26, armed terrorists assaulted a military armoury, two barracks, two jails, and two police stations, clashing with security personnel.
According to government numbers, the combat killed 21 individuals, including 18 members of the security forces and three terrorists. Eighty people have been arrested since then.
Former president Koroma has been named as a suspect in the organisation of the November 26 events, police said on Tuesday.
After that announcement, he was confined to his home.
West Africa has been hit by a series of coups since 2020, with the military taking power in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea.
