By Fohad Mbaimba Kallay in Kono.
‘’ I stand with President Bio to send former President Koroma on exile ffollowing the recent volatility of our noble state's security culminating in the failed coup on November 26th,2023 attempt and the alleged involvement of the former head of state, His Excellency Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma. To me, it is the penultimate of our security crisis. Our state security apparatus and the judiciary have done the needful in their manifestations of handing justice with the commencement of trials of the alleged culprits, including the former president," he said.
Hon. Saa Emerson Lamina stated that he respected the views and opinions of those who wish to see former President Ernest Bia Koroma continue to face the full force of the law.
He confessed that he admired and stood by the magnanimity shown by His Excellency Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio in allowing the former president, through the judiciary, to leave the jurisdiction of Sierra Leone to seek medical treatment in Nigeria. In his candid view, he said President Bio's decision was laudable. He added that such a deliberate decision could only be made by a leader who had a genuine interest in his country.
Hon. Saa Emerson Lamina further stated that the pessimists are alluding to tactics by ECOWAS to free former President Koroma from the yoke of the apparent evidence the state has against former President Koroma.
" Let bygones be bygones, so be it. Yes, we are a sovereign State; we are covered by the United Nations charter that guarantees our sovereignty from noninterference, but again, we are African and ECOWAS. We are not a state in isolation. We are part of the wider Community of civilized Nations. We are Sierra Leone," he noted.
Hon. Lamina of the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party urged his colleagues Member of Parliament to take a deep breath and see the decision of the judiciary to send former president Ernest Bia Koroma into exile as the best on the faces of the following considerations:
Hon. Lamina recalled that the country was engulfed in an 11-year civil war. During such a period, he said the country benefited immensely from the intervention of the regional block ECOWAS, which spent its human and financial resources to defend our democracy and restore sanity. He disclosed that hundreds of their men and women in uniforms lost their lives in the course.
Hon. Saa Emerson Lamina maintained that former president Koroma's presence in the country had put a lot of pressure on the security budget to maintain the state’s peace by augmenting logistics, morale boosters, and other paraphernalia. He said the presence of former President Koroma had created tension daily for the country's security sector.
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