The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is set to relocate former Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma to Nigeria on Thursday.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the ECOWAS Commission President, Omar Alieu Touray, said that the decision to transfer Koroma was based on an agreement made by an ECOWAS Mission to Freetown on December 23.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana and Senegal’s Macky Sail led the high-level delegation.
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Touray added that the former President has accepted the invitation to be entertained in Nigeria, and that arrangements will be made to fly him out of Freetown today, subject to approval.
On Tuesday, the former Sierra Leonean President and 11 other people were charged over the attempted coup, including one of Koroma’s former bodyguards.
Koroma has been under house arrest since being questioned over the coup.
However, Sierra Leone Foreign Minster Timothy Kabba told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) the government did not support the proposal to relocate Koroma, which he described as a unilateral proposition by the ECOWAS Commission President.
But, Touray’s statement on Koroma’s relocation to Nigeria, titled: “Temporary relocation of former President to Abuja”, reads:
“I am pleased to inform Your Excellency that as part of the agreement reached during the mission, the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has offered to host His Excellency Ernest Bal Koroma, former President of Sierra Leone, in Abuja on a temporary basis.
“The former President has accepted the offer to be hosted In Nigeria, hence, subject to your approval, arrangements will be made to fly former President Koroma out of Freetown on Thursday, 4th January.”
However, the former President’s lawyer, Joseph Kamara, told the BBC he was “shocked and in utter disbelief”, saying the charges set a “dangerous precedent.
“A dark cloud has shadowed the skies of our country. Meaning that we are dragging a former head of state – democratically elected – on trumped-up charges under a political vendetta,”
he said.
