With barely a week to the start of the judge led Commission of Inquiry to probe ex-ministers, heads of parastatals/agencies of former President Koroma led APC government and prominent Lebanese contractors accused of corruption in the Government Transition report, it is now reported that some of major suspects have secretly left the country to dodge prosecution.

In implementing the report’ recommendations, the police immediately slammed a travel ban on all those accused of corruption and subsequently ordered them to turn in their current passports and all travelling documents pending commencement of the inquest.

Meanwhile, close allies of certain suspects who are very sickened over the scale of fraud and financial misappropriation allegedly committed by past government officials as stated in the report have confirmed to this press that these ministers and foreign contractors are currently evading prosecution as they are reportedly leaving the shores of Freetown surreptitiously for safe haven abroad..

These fugitives (names withheld) are said to have escaped through the country’s porous borders using tinted luxurious vehicles at nights and allegedly escorted by some security personnel since they could not make it through the country’s International Airportwithout a travel document.

Their escape has left the general public doubtful as to whether those whose names are mentioned in the damning report and asked to hand over their travel documents fully complied with police order.

Many are of the fervent belief that majority of these suspects did not submit their passports as they are currently residing overseas, an abode that could not be reached without legal travel documentation. Hence they have lambasted the police for failing to act tough.

This laid-back approach of the police, they said, has the tendency to undermine the long anticipated investigation on such magnitude of state fraud that has mired the country’s economy over the past years. It is also understood that, some APC ministers and contractors also indicted in the report had already left the jurisdiction before it was released.