A tweet by Amadu Lamrana Bah, a freelance journalist in Sierra Leone, said the former President was accompanied from his home to the Water Taxi to Lungi by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Timothy Kaaba, the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Peter Lavahun, the Inspector General of Police, William Fay Sells, and his lead attorney, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara.
Sources from the United Nations and ECOWAS, a bloc of West African countries, told the BBC that ECOWAS had brokered a deal for Mr Koroma to go into exile in Nigeria if the charges were dropped to ease tension following the November unrest.
The BBC has also seen a letter saying Mr Koroma had agreed to the deal, which would see him continue to enjoy the perks of a former president even while he was in Nigeria.
In a nationwide address on Thursday night, President Julius Maada Bio said the issue of his predecessor was entirely in the hands of the judiciary.
“The courts have, therefore, granted the application for the former President to depart from the country purely for specialised medical reasons, and his trial will be suspended for the duration of his absence,” he said.
President Bio said it did not in any way detract from the seriousness of the ongoing trials, and that it was further proof that “the trial is not a political witch-hunt but one aimed at unravelling the truth behind the events of 26 November.”
The attack saw armed assailants storm a military barracks and prisons, freeing around 2,000 inmates, the authorities said. At least 21 people were killed in the violence.
The government said this amounted to an attempt to overthrow it, and in subsequent weeks more than 80 people were arrested as suspects – many of them belonging to Sierra Leone’s military.
The former president’s daughter, Dankay Koroma, has previously been named on a list of suspects wanted by police investigating the failed coup. She has not commented.
The attempted coup came five months after a disputed election which saw President Bio narrowly re-elected for a second term.
The results were rejected by Mr Koroma’s All People’s Congress. International observers also criticised the elections, highlighting a lack of transparency in the count.
In a related development, Dr. Johnson Sandy, the Executive Chairperson, Regional Centre for Governance and Security Policy Initiative (RCGSPI), on Friday called on the parliamentary oversight committees on defence , security and judiciary to officially launch a strategic review of the Sierra Leone’s security and judiciary sector institutions – including determining the link between law enforcement and criminal justice institutions.
The review, he said, should determine whether under the National Intelligence and Security2A17defence the police and judiciary act are not sufficient to address threats to political and security stability of Sierra Leone.
It should also determine the level of cooperation and collaboration and effectiveness between law enforcement and criminal justice institutions in dealing with protests and military coup attempts or subversion.
Sandy, in a statement sent to LEADERSHIP Weekend, said the review should identify gaps and challenges faced by these institutions to effectively support rational executive decision- making processes aimed at preventing or responding to internal security threats-protests, coup attempts/ drug abuses.
