President Kabbah Opens Late Walter Nicol's Condolence Book

The President, Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, this morning, 1 September, formally opened the book of condolence in respect of the deceased Chief Electoral Commissioner and Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, Mr. Walter Olushanu Frank Nicol, who passed away in London Saturday 23rd August 2003.

The late Mr Walter Nicol, aged 60, who had also risen to the post of Inspector General of the Sierra Leone Police by 1993, successfully supervised the last Parliamentary and Presidential elections in Sierra Leone. The elections were acclaimed by both foreign and local observers as the country's most transparent, free and fair, and devoid of violence.

A product of the Sierra Leone Grammar School, Walter Nicol later obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics at the Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. Following his recruitment into the national police force, the former Inspector General proceeded to Britain where he earned a masters degree in policing studies.

President Kabbah, Vice President Solomon Berewa, Cabinet Ministers, Freetown CityCouncil Chairman, Henry Fergusson, and a host of senior government functionaries, friends and family members attended a short memorial service this morning at the City Council which preceded the President's formal opening and signing of the book of condolence at the Freetown City Council building, Wallace Johnson Street.

The service, officiated by a respected Anglican cleric, included prayers, commendation and three hymns sung to the accompaniment of the Sierra Leone Police brass band and interspersed with two scriptural readings taken from the Old Testament Book of Psalms chapter 39 and Romans chapter 8:31 to the end.