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Presidential
Helicopter Arrives
By
Yusuf Alghali
President
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah today inspected a British-made
eleven-seater executive helicopter, which arrived
at the Freetown quay yesterday from the Emirate
of Qatar.
The
Head of State disclosed that the Emir of Qatar had
earlier promised assistance towards providing an
aircraft to facilitate his official trips, during
a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference
(OIC) held in Qatar.
He
further explained that since government did not
have the funds to procure such a craft for the
presidency, he had decided to make an earnest
appeal to the Qatari leader in that regard.
He
indicated that the craft should have arrived much
earlier but pointed out that because the model was
an American intellectual property, manufactured
by British Rolls Royce under US license, obtaining
and transporting it here took some time. He also
said that the craft could have flown five hours
non-stop from Qatar to Sudan; Sudan to Kano in Nigeria;
and Kano to Sierra Leone, but noted that the war
in Iraq had contributed to the delayed arrival of
the approximately 40ft long chopper.
Two
pilots and a technician will shortly be arriving
in Freetown at the expense of Qatari government
to help train Sierra Leonean pilots on the use
and maintenance of the helicopter.
The
President thanked the Special envoy of the Emir
of Qatar, Syed Abdul Qayyum, who personally escorted
and formally delivered the gift to President Kabbah,
expressed his grateful thanks to his Highness the
Emir of Qatar.
"We
shall never forget this kindness," the President
said, and added "now we must hold the peace
and nurture it and build wealth for our country,
so that we will be able to provide for ourselves
things like this helicopter."
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