Beware of 419 politicians from Sierra Leone -High commissioner

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Sierra Leonian High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency, Henry Olufumi Macauley, has alerted Nigerian businessmen to beware of “419 politicians” soliciting for funds for their campaigns and offering false promises of oil blocs after elections.
Briefing journalists in Abuja on Saturday, Macauley said one of the opposition party presidential candidades had visited Nigeria on several occassions during which he met with and asked some businessmen to fund his campaign.

He warned that  Nigerians should not get deceived by promises that would not materialise.

The high commissioner also pleaded with President Goodluck Jonathan to assist Sierra-Leone to conduct free and fair election so that the current peace in the country, which he said Nigeria labored to put in place, is not destroyed by anti-democratic elements in the West African country.

Of particular concern to Mr. Macauley is the presence of some politicians who have anti-democatic antecedents and who may want to return Sierra Leone to its crisis period.

“There are two parties in Sierra Leone, the All People’s Congress (APC) and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). SLPP used to be in power before the ACP came to power with the inauguration of Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma as president in 2007.

“SLPP was the party in power before the series of coups in that country. Sadly, one of the main champions of those coups is the standardbearer of the SLPP. And that is General Maada Bio.

“We are looking forward to elections in November and in the opposition, we have a candidate who is twice a military coupist and known for war crimes.  In fact, the United Kingdom and the United States are investigating him over war crimes and extra-judicial killings, as well as massive corruption during the days of his military adventurism.

“We are concerned that somebody with this kind of antecedent may not like peace.  We, therefore, implore the Nigerian government and the Nigerian people to keep their eyes open and make sure that nothing goes wrong in Sierra Leone.

“We all know that Nigeria is the big brother in the region and if anything goes wrong anywhere, Nigeria is morally bound to go in. That is why we appeal to Nigeria to keep her eyes open so that the hard-won peace she has helped us to achieve can be  sustained.

“This is important because if we are to achieve sustainable development in Africa, we need peace and stability and we have to bear in mind that whatever affects one part of the sub-region affects others,” he said.

He said that President Koroma had stabilised the country, while the economy of Sierra Leone was picking up.

Apart from peace, the high commissioner said that electricity supply had been improved by the present government, while anti-corruption fight had been intensified.

Macauley also recalled that 10 Nigerian banks were operating in Sierra Leone, in addition to many individual businessmen from Nigeria who were running their businesses in his country.

The high commissioner paid tribute to sacrifices made by Nigeria and Nigerians in restoring peace to the country and urged President Jonathan to continue to assist it in sustaining the peace.