2 Jailed For Manslaughter

The Court of Appeal Judge, Hon. Justice Alhaji Momoh-Jah Stevens has sentenced 18-year-old Ibrahim Sesay to six years imprisonment for manslaughter.

The convict was first indicted for Murder before the Prosecution subsequently amended the charge to Manslaughter.

According to the particulars of offence, accused Ibrahim Sesay on the 4th day of October 2018 at Service Secondary School in Freetown, in the Western Area of the Republic of Sierra Leone did kill Joshua Bockarie.

At the time of the commission of the offence, the convict was a juvenile.

The convict was involved in a fight with Bockarie in the classroom at the Services Secondary School in Freetown which later led to the death of Bockarie.

During the trial, the accused decided to change his plea after the charge was read and explained to him. He thereafter pleaded guilty to the offence of manslaughter.

In his allocutus, the convict pleaded for mercy, adding that he had no intention to kill.

Following his plea, Hon. Justice Stevens sentenced him to six years imprisonment including the time already spent on remand.

In another related matter, Hon. Justice Stevens convicted and sentenced Allarine Billoh Bah alias “Allah Blessed” to six years imprisonment for manslaughter.

The convict was first indicted for Murder before the Prosecution amended the charge to manslaughter on the 8th day of July 2020.

According to the particulars of offence, the convict on the 20th day of February 2019 at Freetown in the Western Area of the Republic of Sierra Leone killed Sheriff Jalloh.

The accused was involved in a fight with Jalloh which later led to his death.

During today’s trial, the amended charge was put to Bah and explained to him and he pleaded guilty to the offence of manslaughter.

In his allocutus, the convict pleaded for mercy and said he had no intention to kill the deceased.

After his plea, Justice Stevens sentenced him to six years imprisonment including time spent on remand.

Citizens Urge Fair Treatment for Investor Ahmad Mackie

By Alhaji Turay

There are many investors around the world, who are there to boost national economy, because majority of them have hundreds of employees and are helping government day to day running the affairs of the state through payment of tax and CSR.

As the investor employs large part of the population in any country, they do take up to 50% or even up to 85% of employees in any country that come from the private sector with only 15% make up from the government. This 15% from government goes with three different functions. They take the executive functions, judiciary and legislative functions.

With these officials commonly called state functions, you have the president and his cabinet making up rules and regulation which they sent to the legislative for enactment, also finalized by the judiciary that deals with the law breakers that has be put in place by the executive and legislative organs.

For the three organs function properly they sort out employment for few people who can help them to push their day to day activities of the state, for this to be well this organs especially from the executive whirring you have the minister of Trade who is expected to open doors for genuine investors that be able to create more employment, so that government in that state will coming as an overseer.

Sierra Leone is one the countries in West Africa the has always open for investors to invest, but yet still the country’s lack some of this criteria, but because of mare understanding and injustice doors are still open for them to come in by the government.

Amongst genuine investor that are hailed by many Sierra Leoneans, poor and rich, old and young is Ahmad Mackie a true investor because of his dealings with people in Sierra Leone, meeting corporate social responsibilities as he cares for ordinary citizens and not for his personal benefit.

In a vox pop interview citizens in Freetown called on the government to support Ahmad Mackie to do more investment in Sierra Leone.

They also demanded that government should give him fair treatment so that he will be able to handle his businesses well in the country, especially during hard times.

Ahmad Mackie has been a cement importer in Sierra Leone for decades and even when Sierra Leone used to have shortage of cement, he stills maintains and stabilizes his price.

Investment Stakeholders End Dialogue

The National Investment Board on October 7th, 2021, ended a three days pre-presidential public- private dialogue they organized at the Office of the Vice President- Tower Hill in Freetown.

The dialogue created an interface between investors and the investment stakeholders in the country to meet and discuss challenges affecting Sierra Leone’s investment space and map out appropriate solutions to them.

It held representations from investment stakeholders, the import and export sector, small and informal business in the country and had examined issues relative to taxation, customs, legislative reviews, Sierra Leone’s legal tender, export licenses, enforcement of existing laws to address street trading, trade monopoly, and lack of equal opportunities etc.

Professor Marda Mustapha, Executive Director of the National Investment Board, said the essence of the dialogue was to prepare themselves before they meet the president.

“What we intend doing here is to actually listen. The importance of this is to prepare ourselves, to present ourselves to the president so that the issues that we identify here and the recommendations that we make will be laid before the president and hopefully the president will give us marching orders as to how to fix the problems.”

Professor Marda Mustapha added that the dialogue was different because they were not there just to make a talk shop.

“We are intending to take it to the president. And at the end of the day we will all agree on something. There are challenges we know, but the agreement will give us a quick fix and everyone will be forced to keep to their sides.”

The NIB boss revealed that one of the problems the country has been facing in terms of investment in the country is bureaucracy. 

“The NIB will be different in this case. We will do follow ups so we’ll know if there are problems. Be rest assured that if anyone messes up, the vice president will know, the president will also know because we keep them updated on the happenings of the secretariat.”

He also disclosed that there’s now a bill for NIB in Parliament and anytime pretty soon enough, there will be a law to organize the business space in the country.

“Let’s be assured that the business space will be more organized this time. This a  pre- presidential public private dialogue. We are preparing ourselves. Bring out your problems and let’s find a solution.”

Professor Mustapha thanked the participants for their support. He stated that the investment board will partner with Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce to properly organize investment in the country.

“We will sign a MoU with the Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce. But also, do not forget that we will take these suggestions to the president and find a middle man solution to them. We will sign an agreement that will work for all.”

In his statement, Dr. Samuel S. Jibao, Commissioner General, National Revenue Authority (NRA), noted reforms which his institution had undergone in recent times to support investment in the country.

He spoke about the end product of NRA’s ITAS reform which is to facilitate registration, payment and filing of returns online. This, according to him,  will greatly help to bring down the compliance cost and reduce the inflow of taxpayers into NRA premises.

Other participants inclusive the President of the Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Finance had also made salient contributions to the dialogue.

The dialogue was well attended and inclusive.

It was chaired by the Secretary to the Vice President and was facilitated by Dr. Gaima, Presidential Adviser on Governance in the Office of the President.