President
Kabbah To Meet Judicial Stakeholders
By Yusuf
Alghali
In
another determined move to eliminate judicial
and other bottlenecks stalling the trial of
corruption-related offences, President Ahmad
Tejan Kabbah today disclosed that he would shortly
be hanging heads with Vice President (VP) Solomon
Berewa, Chief Justice (CJ) Abdulai Timbo, Attorney
General (AG) Eke Halloway, Director of Public
Prosecution (DPP) Bryma Kebbie and members of
the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) headed
by Val Collier.
Early
last month, President Kabbah bluntly chided
the Attorney General's office, including the
investigative division of the Anti-Corruption
Commission, for the snail's pace progress recorded
both in the investigation and prosecution of
corruption cases, a situation he described as
an embarrassment.
Also
speaking in an interview this morning, President
Kabbah expressed in no uncertain terms his desire
to see the achievement of even better results
in the cooperation and coordination between
the judiciary and the anti-corruption commission.
He said he had been trying to distance himself
from the activities of the commission so as
not to appear to be influencing the way it operates,
but stressed that there was now need to go further
than that.
The
Head of State intimated that during a chat with
one of the "major players" in the
fight against corruption last week, he "got
the distinct impression" that bottlenecks
occur partly because some players do not understand
their roles. He spoke of emerging problems of
overlapping functions, resulting in one official
encroaching on another's turf, thus highlighting
the significance of conferring with stakeholders
in the next few days, in a collective bid to
address questions relating to obstacles impeding
the prompt delivery of judicial services.
However,
in dismissing the recent International Crisis
Group (ICG) report on Sierra Leone, President
Kabbah noted that his efforts aimed at combating
corruption were being internationally admired,
pointing out the fact that nowhere else in Africa
had a high court judge been charged, tried and
convicted for corruption offences. He maintained
that the ICG was not au fait with how to run
a country emerging from a violent civil war,
promising that he would deal more thoroughly
with the ICG's report in a public speech to
be made shortly.
But
President Kabbah also remarked that some of
the problems affecting the outlook of the ACC
were largely attitudinal, as people tend to
look at the issues only from the point of view
of the anti-corruption commission.
