…SALONE’S IMAGE IN ‘SH**T’
By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
Amid Sierra Leone’s current problematic democratic credentials under the Julius Maada Bio-led Paopa Government, stemming from the manipulation and mishandling of the June 2023 electioneering process, which seems to have spelt donor lethargy for the country, an international dishonour has again set in, nurturing doom for the West African nation!
Trans-national drug trafficking is one of the worst international crimes. Drug trafficking affects nations the world over, undermining political and economic stability while ruining the lives of individuals and damaging communities, as people are corrupted, and social order, public health, morality, and culture are eroded, reasons why global community despises the drug trade outrightly.
Meanwhile, Sierra Leone’s reputation and dignity have been deeply injured by unscrupulous individuals who are vilifying it with one drug scandal after another. Though drug bust in the country and its trafficking by Sierra Leoneans are not new, how it has become incessant and egregious in the 2020s leaves a worrying phenomenon. And from the ‘drug container’ bust at the Queen Elizabeth II Quay (Water Quay) to the subsequent arrest of Sierra Leoneans onboard an impounded boat load of drugs in Guinea shortly after, the country remains pitched in drug scandals around the world.
Today, Sierra Leone has drawn global attention, following the recent interception of a vehicle owned by the country’s diplomatic mission in Conakry that carried in it 7 suitcases of cocaine. And at the time of going to press last evening, we could not be privy to any official rejoinder to a BBC report that the Ambassador to Guinea is still being held in custody by Guinean authorities who are demanding the Sierra Leone Government to disrobe him of all diplomatic immunities to be subsequently tried under the Guinean judicial system.
This latest revelation, however, contradicts an earlier government claim that Ambassador Alimamy Bangura had since been recalled.
Apart from the diplomatic dishonour Sierra Leone was made to bump into in Guinea, the country’s image was further injured immediately after that fiasco with the arrest in Senegal of another set of five Sierra Leonean drug traffickers.
The worst came when in jiffy news suddenly broke out that a notorious European drug lord was hiding in Sierra Leone, allegedly dining and wining with the presidency.
The 33-year-old Jos Leijdekkers aka Bolle Jos is a Dutch citizen, tagged as one of the world’s most dreaded cocaine kingpins. Reportedly going by many names, including Omarr Sheriff, Chubby, Daniel Ernst, Joseph, Johannes, Jos is badly wanted by Dutch authorities as in June 2023, a Rotterdam Court tried and convicted him of smuggling more than 7 tonnes of cocaine, and then sentenced him to 24 years in prison in absentia. How this drug baron came to Sierra Leone remains checkered with controversial narratives.
However, what is viewed by well-meaning Sierra Leoneans as more diplomatically sabotaging and threatening is the wild news alleging that Jos is in marital relationship with the President’s daughter with high-level protection given him by the Sierra Leone Government, thus, placing the country on the line for global hatred and ill will.
Netherlands is a member state to the European Union who has remained an outstanding and trusted Sierra Leone development partner. It is, therefore, feared that hosting and protecting a wanted criminal have the tendency to spell out diplomatic trouble for the West African nation. But Sierra Leonean authorities have vehemently denied having dealing with any Jos Leijdekkers, though police official confirmation is about one “Omarr Sheriff,” whose whereabouts they say remain unknown though.
Bolle Jos’ alleged presence in Sierra Leone and proximity to the First Family have left patriotic Sierra Leoneans reeling in worries, knowing it’s ramifications on the country’s wider international relations, especially, his alleged marital relationship with the President’s daughter, and when the country had before now been suspected of being a trans-shipment point for huge quantities of narcotic drugs from Latin America to Europe, and the world by extension.
Meanwhile, amid the overwhelming claims, counterclaims, and denials, Sierra Leoneans should not give the severe allegations against their authorities just a wave of the hand, but they must work assiduously to free themselves, their government and the entire Sierra Leoneans from this gulf of international dishonour they have been thrown into.