Minister of Transport and Aviation, Ibrahim Kemoh Sesay yesterday became the first casualty in the nine-month-old administration of President Ernest Bai Koroma. A press release from State House says Mr Sesay was sacked because of ongoing investigations into the unauthorized landing at Lungi on July 13 of a plane loaded with 700 kilograms of cocaine.According the release, the decision is to “facilitate the investigations in providing unfettered access to everyone and everywhere the investigations demand’.A senior police source says the sacking followed a meeting between the top echelons of the police and the Attorney General in which issues relating to the outcome so far of the investigations were discussed.
However, the Assistant Inspector General of Police for Crime Services, Francis Munu told Awoko that they were still investigating the matter, saying he could not tell whether they had the intension of arresting the former minister. Mr Sesay himself declined to comment on the matter beyond saying ‘It is a government decision’.
Reacting to the dismissal, the Secretary General for the opposition SLPP party, Jacob Jusu Saffa welcomed the action of the president saying it was “long overdue”. He said it showed “some level of commitment” on the part of the government in dealing with the issue, but said his party had expected more heads to roll including that of the Inspector General of the Police. Since the landing of the plane last month, dozens of people were arrested among them several south Americans and one US citizen. They are currently standing trial on a 19-count charge ranging from unlawfully landing a plane to conspiracy to defeat the course of justice.
By John Baimba Sesay