It took a stern warning from the Anti-Corruption Commission that if he did not present himself to the Commission within 72 hours, a warrant of arrest enforceable by the Sierra Leone Police will be issued against him, for the fugitive former president Koroma to come out of hiding to face the Commission.
The intervention of the British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone also saw the former president Koroma who is wanted by the ACC to answer to allegations of engaging in grand corruption whilst he was president from 2007 to 2018 sneak quietly into Freetown on Sunday night to grant the long overdue interview.
After several months of dodging, the former president at last left his hometown in Makeni where he has been seeking refuge for Freetown where he was interviewed yesterday Monday 23 November by investigators of the Commission in one of the Commission’s Safe Houses in Freetown.
It is reported that ex-president Koroma has denied any wrongdoing calling the allegations against him politically motivated and a witch hunt. However the Commission could not conclude the process, but deferred it to a date agreed between both parties.
Three previous attempts, first in Freetown, second in Makeni and last week in Freetown by the ACC to sit down with the ex-president and question him failed, to the frustration of the ACC.
When the ex-president on the excuse that he was afraid for his security failed to show up for the interview at the ACC’s Gloucester Street headquarters, the ACC spokesman went on radio to announce that they will bring in the ex-president on a warrant.
On Monday morning, news went round that the ex-president sneaked quietly into Freetown on Sunday evening at around 8pm but did not reside at his palatial Femi Turner Drive residence in Goderich where a sizeable crowd of APC supporters were reported to have gathered.