Chancery Building Matter: Saidu Nallo Continues His Testimony

By Feima Sesay

The first defense witness in the ongoing chancery building matter before Justice Adrain Fisher of the high court in Freetown Saidu Nallo on Wednesday 19th July 2023 continued his testimony in court. By 2015, he said they had to move out of the five floors Chancery building which was in its unfit for habitation state; decaying, infested by rats and roaches, broken heating and cooling systems and licking rooftop among other dangers it posed.  He said he had attempted to go to the said building only twice due to its state. The ground floor which had some of the very important offices including the head of Chancery’s and accountant’s he said were terrible with the entire building in need of urgent attention  at the time having visible cracks.

As a result of the shameful state of the building, he said the Ambassador seldom seats there and preferred hanging out at the main UN building. Like the ambassador, the witness said he also only briefly visits that building which housed his office and rather was engaged in outreach coordination activities for Sierra Leone. The mission he said was constrained with funds hence the setting up of a committee for the refurbishment of the building comprising the head of Chancery especially with the country’s bad history of tenancy in New York. The committee he said sourced ideas and resources to make it better.

During his tenure at the United Nations, he said the New York City building department; insurance as well had visited and done inspections on the said building issuing warnings. Around May of 2015 while he was still a Councilor, he said the condition of the Sierra Leone mission building forced them to move to Uganda house. A rent of about 15 thousand dollars was being paid for the very small space they were allocated in the 8th floor at the Uganda house. While at the Uganda house, he said they became under pressure with letters of violations and fines from the city’s building department. On his recall to Freetown in November 2015 and resumed duties at the ministry of foreign affairs until December of 2017, he said he was intimated by the DDG about the challenges that existed with securing the much needed funds for the properties of the state overseas including but not limited to Ghana, Gambia and Ethiopia.

Mr. Nallo said the sum of two million dollars was provided in 2011 by a certain development partner and another two million dollars in 2019. The then ambassador Francis Kaikai he said advised the partner to remit the said fund in tranches through Freetown. He said he saw on document in New York the disbursement of one million dollars in 2016 of that money to the mission in New York. The other remittances he said were done in bits but payments to the contractor were stopped in September 2017, three months before he resumed office in new York such office of the head of Chancery which he only started in March 2018.

At the time, the contractors he said had gone on strike due to backlog payments to Mr. Jules Davies. The deputy director general on administration he said was directly in charge of government properties abroad. By 2015, he said Mr. Paul Minah was serving in that capacity. His mandate as head of Chancery he said was broad, but primarily to coordinate, supervise and monitor the day to day administration activities among things should bring out the best for the country. He said there was no formal handing over note from his predecessor whom he said he saw only once, an issue which he even raised in a memo to Freetown. It was Mr. Sheku Massally who was the acting head of Chancery and erroneously referred to as the Procurement secretary, and Adekalie Foday Suma was at the time the Ambassador.

After consultations, he said he braved it to meet with the contractor who was already owed and was being escaped by members of the Chancery as a result. At this stage of his testimony, his lawyer Pa Momoh Fofanah requested for an adjournment to Wednesday 26th July to go further into the management of the refurbishment of the Chancery. His application was granted by Justice Fisher.