By Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden OOR of the All Peoples Congress (APC)
This is a long piece, but of high national importance if we want to understand what is unfolding.
Firstly, I note the Discontinuance. I have no personal issues with it but I truly hope from the bottom of my heart that parents, wives, children & families of soldiers and men killed whilst defending H.E. President Bio and family on 26th November 2023, were well consulted, counseled and brought into the circle for this proposed national unity cycle.
I pray that they see the Reconciliation Menu and partake from it. They are important to also get to choose from the Unity Menu.
Now to the points.
This Briefing seeks to correct a subtly delivered but gross disinformation by pro-SLPP journalist Mr. Sorie Fofana. It will then dive deeper into issues of Truth that are essential to National Reconciliation, Cohesion and Unity.
Sorie Fofana is one of the best writers of our time. He has subtly insinuated that the men closely associated with Ernest Bai Koroma, who now serve long jail terms of up to 120 years for roles in 26th November 2023 Coup, were brutal ex-combatants. He created a dichotomy between the convicts and State assigned personnel.
Sorie did it very cleverly to portray Ernest Bai Koroma as a victim of bad choices innocently caught up in ex combatant company and it was association with bad ex military combatants that resulted in Koroma getting into trouble.
That posit by Sorie is untrue and if we truly seek reconciliation and unity, History needs to be written properly for not just this time but for future generations to be better guided.
Infact, I am curious about the sincerity of purpose in this arrangement. Let me explain.
The fact that the H.E. Maada Bio Government chose Section 45 of Criminal Procedure Act rather than avenues cited in Section 46, speaks volumes. It means the Government is not at all sure of the sincerity of Ernest Bai Koroma so they have ‘kept a stick behind the door’.
I will speak on Section 45 versus Section 46 at the end of this piece. This is going to be a very long piece. I will do an audio version later for those of you who don’t read long pieces.
Let me handle Sorie’s disinformation with solid FACTS that I am going to diligently lay out using three (3) case files.
1. 🚨Assistant Superintendent of Police Ibrahim Batetewor Sesay was the Chief Security Officer and Head of Police guards officially assigned by the State, with the approval of H.E. President Julius Maada Bio, to protect Ernest Bai Koroma as a former president. ASP Sesay is now serving 44 years in jail for his role in the November 26th coup.
Contrary to what Sorie Fofana subtly markets, ASP Ibrahim Sesay was not a violent man nor a former military combatant of the likes of Leatherboots, Kabbah or Sorieba. Instead ASP Sesay was on official active police duty deployed by the Government itself to provide security for Ernest Bai Koroma.
ASP Ibrahim Sesay, as the State assigned Police Head of Security, traveled with the former president Ernest Bai Koroma including on all Koroma’s International Observer Missions between 2018 to 2023 as well as all Koroma’s private trips.
It was in that capacity as State assigned Head of Koroma’s Security that ASP Sesay was arrested from his duties at the former president’s Makeni residence after the November 26th coup, charged to court and then dismissed from the Police.
It is noteworthy that ASP Sesay was part of the police security of Ernest Koroma during his time as President and also, at the direct request of Ernest Koroma as a former president, ASP Ibrahim Sesay continued to secure Koroma in his post-presidency years.
With this update, I am sharing pertinent photos of ASP Sesay and Ernest Bai Koroma, including one of Sesay seated at the famous Presidential Town Hall meeting in Holland right behind Koroma in April 2014.
ASP Sesay was one of President Koroma’s most trusted police officers. He was the only one allowed to hold Koroma’s drinking flask as President. He was not known to be violent.
Personally, I know ASP Sesay quite well as we all worked at the State House and also I spent time with him during Koroma’s post presidency years.
ASP Sesay is always smiling and a perfect gentleman. Ibrahim or Batetewor as we fondly called him, is a very intelligent, quiet spoken gentleman with a First Class Honours degree in Economics and a Masters degree in Finance.
For such a highly educated, serving Police Officer to get entangled in such a brutal Coup, requires a very honest in-depth understanding of the circumstances he found himself.
The evidence tendered against ASP Sesay in Court resulted in his UNANIMOUS conviction by a 12-man Jury and a sentence of 44 years jail time for Harbouring and for Misprision of Treason.
I was present in Court on the day ASP Ibrahim Sesay was convicted and sentenced. In his address to the Court, ASP Sesay made a simple but powerful sentence as he pleaded his continued Innocence. It was poignant.
ASP Sesay said he was being punished for being in a place where he was actually officially assigned to be by the State – in other words, the Makeni compounds of Former President Ernest Bai Koroma.
ASP Sesay was accused of having conspired with others to aid the hosting (Harbouring) in Makeni of Koita and those who planned the coup.
ASP Sesay was also accused of hearing the plans for the Coup from up there in Makeni as a senior police officer of the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police but without reporting the Coup to authorities (Misprision of Treason).
ASP Sesay is currently serving 44 years in jail for that – 4 years for harbouring Koita and others and 40 years for Misprision of Treason.
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2. 🚨Police Sergeant Emmanuel Salifu Kamara was the second most senior of the active police officers assigned by Government to secure Ernest Bai Koroma, as former president. Salifu is serving 92 years in jail for his role in the November 26th coup.
Like the other security officers, Police Sergeant Salifu was assigned to secure former president Ernest Bai Koroma with the blessings of President Julius Maada Bio’s government.
Salifu was a serving policeman who was the immediate second to ASP Sesay on the police hierarchy protecting Ernest Bai Koroma.
I know Salifu also very well. Sergeant Salifu is a very intelligent police officer and I can personally vouch that Salifu is one of the most gentle humans you can imagine possible.
I was present in Court when Salifu was unanimously convicted by a 12-Man jury based on the evidence and then sentenced for Murder and two counts of Treason.
During summing up, the Jury were told that under the Law, to convict for Murder, the Accused does not need to be the one who held the gun and pulled the trigger but if he planned the Coup with others and those others went on to violently murder soldiers during the execution of the plan, then he was also guilty of Murder.
It was on that basis that Sergeant Salifu Emmanuel Kamara was convicted of Murder.
Unlike ASP Sesay who spoke to the Court, Police Sergeant Salifu was unable to say anything when the Judge asked him after the Jury had found him guilty. Sgt Salifu was disoriented in court, confused, pale, sickly, had lost weight and appeared totally depressed.
Sergeant Salifu was convicted by a Jury on the evidence and sentenced by the Judge to 40 years for Murder offences and 52 years for two sets of Treason charges. He is now serving a total of 92 years jail time.
I have also shared a photo of him standing guard with ASP Sesay as they both stood behind Ernest Bai Koroma inside Biriwa Chiefdom, Bombali. His two closest and most loyal police officers.
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3. 🪖Military Staff Sergeant Ibrahim Thorlu Bangura (aka “Tiger”) was the most senior (Head) of the set of serving Military officers approved by Government to help secure Ernest Bai Koroma as a former president. Tiger is serving 120 years jail term for his role in the November 26th coup.
Military Staff Sergeant Ibrahim Thorlu Bangura (Tiger) was a serving military officer so he was tried separately from the serving Police officers. He faced a Court Martial and not the civilian High Court. I also witnessed his conviction and sentencing his Court. I stood there watching as Tiger and others were led off to serve their lengthy sentence whilst waving to their relatives and friends.
Tiger (Staff Sgt Bangura) faced 40 charges in total and was convicted on all 40 counts including Mutiny, Failure to suppress mutiny, Conspiracy to commit mutiny, Murder (including killing of RSLAF Chief of Operations Colonel Samai), Aiding and abetting mutiny, Conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline and other related offences under the Armed Forces Act arising from the 26 November 2023 attack.
According to prosecution, the evidence against Tiger included his tracked movements on his cellphone as he moved from Former President Koroma’s Makeni residence through the provincial highways and right to the scenes of the actual execution of the Coup in Freetown. His recorded voice on twelve different WhatsApp audio communications on the planning of the operation was tendered along with evidence that he helped coordinate deployment of soldiers involved in the operation.
After the Coup failed, he fled Freetown and went back to Makeni residence of Former President Koroma to continue his duties as a serving military officer and Head of military guards at Koroma’s residence.
When evidence from Koita’s phone and from Sorieba’s phone later implicated him, he was swiftly arrested from the Makeni residence of Ernest Bai Koroma. His defense was curious to say the least. One of his defense was that indeed that was his phone with IMEI and that was his mobile sim card number which was tracked all the way from Ernest Bai Koroma’s Makeni residence along the highways and tracked at all the scenes of the Coup. However he said it was an Unknown Thief who had stolen his phone in Makeni and the Thief then moved with the phone to Freetown and all the precise locations of Pademba Road Prisons, Wilberforce, Lumley, Murray Town and the other scenes of execution of the Coup.
In total, Tiger is serving 120 years sentence for his 40 different convictions. He has since been dismissed from the Military. However, at the time of the Coup, he was not an ex-combatant as Sorie Fofana would want us to believe. He had been officially assigned, at the request of the former president, to be Head of his military retinue. He also served as one of Ernest Koroma’s personal drivers.
Like Police ASP Ibrahim and Police Sergeant Salifu, Tiger also worked with Ernest Bai Koroma during his presidency and continued serving him in his post presidency period with the blessings and approval of President Julius Maada Bio the Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces. They were in active service at the time of the Coup.
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🔔 🔔 🔔
Let us ring the bells now.
*PRESIDENT MAADA BIO GETTING A SECOND TERM AS ECOWAS CHAIRMAN WILL GREATLY HELP HIS IMAGE AMIDST RECENT CONTRABAND SCANDALS:*
President Maada Bio will be very pleased if his colleague Heads of State elect him for a second term as ECOWAS Chairman. Normally the term that a Head of State serves as ECOWAS Chairman is One Year and a new leader is elected. In a few cases, a leader can get back to back election to serve two continuous terms as ECOWAS Chairman. If H.E. Bio is elected again, it would greatly help his image in the wake of recent contraband scandals.
One way of burnishing his credentials to be re-elected as ECOWAS Chairman is to be seen as unifying his own country including reconciling with Koroma, his predecessor in exile.
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*SORIE FOFANA PAVING THE WAY TO SECOND TERM ECOWAS CHAIRMAN:*
If H.E. Bio is to get a back to back ECOWAS Chairman term then Sorie Fofana has to help smoothen the way. This may explain why Sorie has suppressed the facts that officially assigned State security from the Police and the Military, sent to secure Former President including his Chief Security Officer, were convicted for the November 26th 2023 Coup.
Why is Sorie Fofana projecting as if Ernest Bai Koroma got into trouble through only violent ex-combatants he encouraged around him?
Was ASP Ibrahim Sesay a violent ex combatant? No. Sesay was a fine gentleman in active police service who was VERY LOYAL to Ernest Bai Koroma.
Was Police Sergeant Salifu Emmanuel Kamara a violent ex combatant? No. Salifu was a fine gentleman in active police service who was VERY LOYAL to Ernest Bai Koroma.
I did not know Military Staff Sergeant Tiger as well as I knew ASP Sesay and Sergeant Salifu but from my few interactions with Tiger, he was also a soft spoken gentleman who was VERY LOYAL to Ernest Bai Koroma.
These three men now serving sentences of 44 years, 92 years and 120 years jail were not ex combatants as Sorie Fofana wants us to believe. They were in active service and officially assigned to the former president on his personal request as he trusted them.
So why is Sorie trying to lump them all into the category of brutal ex combatants?
The answer is simple.
Sorie is trying to re-write the Truth to whitewash Ernest Bai Koroma for the sake of President Julius Maada Bio.
If the world gets to understand the nature of just these three officials, it negates the claims of EBK being exonerated as a victim of bad association whilst ex-combatants are jailed
Sorie Fofana has to help H.E. Maada Bio by painting Ernest Bai Koroma to be an innocent man caught up by wild acts of ex-combatants like Koita, Leatherboots, Kabbah and Sorieba. To do that, he must suppress how gentlemen close to EBK were convicted with evidence.
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YES, WE NEED RECONCILIATION BUT FIRST, WE NEED THE TRUTH:
If we are sincere about wanting to unite this country, seek cohesion and reconcile then it has to be on a platform of Truth.
Leaving ASP Sesay and Sergeant Salifu to languish in jail whilst we pretend as if they were not the two closest of the former president’s officially approved State assigned security, we are being insincere.
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THANKFULLY, ERNEST BAI KOROMA HAS NEVER PERSONALLY DENOUNCED MAADA BIO FOR CHARGING HIM. KOROMA HAS NEVER GONE ON RECORD TO PERSONALLY DENY THE CHARGES:
The one thing that is good so far is that ever since Ernest Bai Koroma was charged to Court and fled Justice under guise of seeking medical care, the former president has never gone on record to say he is innocent of the charges.
His lawyers, APC party, his supporters have all proclaimed his innocence but Ernest Koroma himself has NEVER gone on record to say the Maada Bio Government does not have evidence against him – he has NEVER denied.
Check the written records on to even his signed Statement today. Ernest Bai Koroma has never written a single line to accuse President Bio of cooking up claims against him. When he appeared in Court, since it was a preliminary hearing, he was not asked to plead Innocence or Guilt.
Ernest Bai Koroma has refused to condemn Julius Maada Bio for charging him to Court. That refusal to deny what is sealed evidence, is a first step on the road to Reconciliation.
The second step is for Ernest Bai Koroma to know that lives got lost during that failed Coup; including the lives of some of our best military officers.
If we truly seek reconciliation, then it has to be on a platform of Truth. It also has to be on platforms of seeking forgiveness from the families of the deceased and seeking repentance, rather than projecting defiance and a false sense of innocence.
We surely cannot pretend that ASP Ibrahim Sesay, as Chief Security Officer to Ernest Bai Koroma and Police Sergeant Salifu Emmanuel Kamara, as the second senior police officer and Military Staff Sergeant Ibrahim Thorlu Bangura (“Tiger”) as Head of Military officers assigned to Ernest Bai Koroma, all had vaulting Coup ambitions that were de-linked from Ernest Bai Koroma. Even a Primary School pupil will not agree.
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*SECTION 46 & SECTION 45 OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ACT, 2024.*
It is good to discontinue the matter but the fact that the matter was not handled using the avenues under Section 46 of the Criminal Procedure Act but rather, under Section 45 speaks a lot. It means the sealed, hidden evidence against Ernest Bai Koroma has been kept safely for now but may be brought out again in fresh charges if the State wishes.
If the Attorney General and Minister of Justice had used Section 46 avenues, it means the matter is dead forever.
However, by using Section 45 of the Act, it means the Government is not fully confident in the sincerity of Ernest Bai Koroma to keep the peace. That is why the Government has ‘keep stick behind door’ in case….
Using Section 46 avenues would have meant the case is called up at the High Court using a leapfrog method from the Magistrate Court and on the first day of the proceedings at the High Court, the Attorney General announces in Open Court that the State has decided that it has no evidence to tender against Ernest Bai Koroma. At this point, the Accused, Ernest Bai Koroma, would have been acquitted.
I repeat: Ernest Bai Koroma would have been ACQUITTED by the High Court and he can never again be charged with anything henceforth to do with that November 26th coup. That would have used Section 46 avenues.
With the method now used which is under Section 45, that section clearly says that if at any time, the Government feels like dragging Ernest Bai Koroma back to Court on the same evidence they have kept hidden and not yet used, they can do so immediately and nothing under the Law can stop them from charging Ernest Koroma again.
This is why Section 45 is not a good option. Section 46 through a Leapfrog is what the Government should have used.
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*MY CONCLUSION:*
It is good that Ernest Bai Koroma has never himself gone on written record to proclaim his innocence. Only his aides and lawyers and supporters have been doing so. He has never publicly condemned President Bio for having him charged to Court because he knows what he knows. Koroma knows what he knows. He knows why his closest police officers and military driver are now serving lengthy jail sentences.
It is easier for Koroma to now assist President Bio to take meaningful steps towards the families and friends of those killed during that Coup. I know of families left devastated just because their security sector husbands and sons lost their lives to stop the Coup.
True Reconciliation means reaching out to them with continuous contrition and doing everything possible to ease their pains.
The conscience of Ernest Bai Koroma also knows that had it not been for the BLIND LOYALTY they have for him, the likes of Police ASP Ibrahim Batetewor Sesay will not be serving 44 years in Jail nor would Police Sergeant Salifu Emmanuel Kamara be serving 92 years in Jail. It is therefore incumbent on Ernest Bai Koroma to ensure that the reconciliation overtures be also extended to those two fine police gentlemen.
Those of us who are honest know those two policemen deserve their freedom far more than Ernest Bai Koroma does. I repeat: those police officers deserve freedom far more than the former president whom the State assigned them to go and serve.
If we truly want to reconcile this Nation then all citizens must insist that Reconciliation has to be on a platform of Truth.
Good luck to H.E. President Bio as he possibly seeks a second ECOWAS Chairmanship this weekend. May all his interesting efforts be worthwhile, produce fruits and not go in vain.
May God judge us all.
May God bless us all. Amen.
I thank you all for reading this far. I will do an audio version of this typed text later. Feel free to reshare.
I rest my pen 🖊️
Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden OOR
Tuesday, July 14th 2026.
