Minister Plenipotentiary asks Sierra Leoneans to put aside mischief and help rebrand and develop Sierra Leone

Published on October 27, 2010 by Cocorioko News · 2 Comments

The Minister Plenipotentiary to the Sierra Leone Mission to the United Nations, Rev. Leeroy Wilfred Kabs-Kanu, has described as misleading and false allegations being posted in a particular forum that $67,302 was realized during the last Open Government Initiative ( OGI ) Banquet held in New York on Saturday September 25, 2010.

The Minister said today that this propensity in Sierra Leoneans for manufacturing and spreading false stories is very sickening and disappointing. Even more disappointing and appalling, according to the Minister, is a statement by one contributor writing under the moniker CONIA LAHAI that State House was investigating about the said money. “There is no such investigation going on. I talk with State House everyday and I am not aware of any investigation going on about any OGI banquet . It is just the diabolical work of ill-disposed persons trying to smear the hard- earned reputation of members who volunteered to serve in the OGI in the United States “. The Minister said that, on the contrary, volunteers of the OGI are being highly commended at State House for staging a successful OGI .

Minister Kabs-Kanu said that to his knowledge no OGI volunteer handled the few cheques that were received for the banquet. “From the onset, those invited to the banquet were asked to make out their checks only to the Sierra Leone Mission to the United Nations. I personally did not even take tickets to sell , not to mention handle money, because of my busy schedule . We the volunteers also decided that for transparency purposes , no individual should handle checks , and the few checks that were received were sent through the Sierra Leone Mission to the UN, ” the minister disclosed. “We wanted to conduct a very transparent program and our efforts ended in huge success “.

Mr. Kabs-Kanu said that the Mission saved the checks received and wrote him one check which he handed over to the Director of the OGI, Khadija Sesay. These were the checks to date received by the Mission :

Bailey Tile 200 dollars

Chernor Abdulai Jalloh : 1,000 dollars

Abibu Sinlah 200 dollars

Patience Woka 150 dollars

Foday Bangura 200 dollars

Martin Bangura 600 dollars

Victor NVCC Woodbridge 1,000 dollars

Sea Horse Express 200 dollars

Soliel Capitale 1,800 dollars

This was a total of $5, 350.

After the OGI , a check for $1,000 was received from ERHC of Houston, Texas but this has not been handed over to the bank for cashing as yet .

Rev. Kabs-Kanu said that the very people making all the noise about OGI money sabotaged the banquet and never turned up.” Because of some acts of sabotage, many people who would have attended the banquet stayed away. Some people returned their tickets claiming that President Koroma, who was the one they wanted to meet, did not attend the banquet in full because he had to travel that night to Freetown ” .

The Minister said also that all tickets given out to OGI volunteers to sell at the banquet were well documented and numbered .At the end of the program, they returned most of the tickets unsold and reported their sales to the Director of the OGI and a record was taken of everything. The OGI ran at a loss because of the non -attendance of the banquet by the patrons invited. “Most of the meagre proceeds from tickets sold at the hall were used to pay for the food and other expenses since the Team decided to make the program self-sustaining. The OGI office will be coming out with the details in a press release. But the amount of $67,302 being spoken about is so fantastical, grand and inflated that members of the team are wondering how people arrived at those figures”.

Rev. Kabs-Kanu is assuring all his supporters and readers of COCORIOKO that he is MR. CLEAN and cannot take part in corruption or preside over a corrupt entity . “I have been a Christian minister of the gospel for nearly 30 years and have handled thousands upon thousands of church money in Liberia and the U.S. but my name has never been mentioned in a scandal. I am a very proud man who loves to live a very modest life within my means,” the minister boasted. God is my provider and I am in no haste to get rich in this world because everything is vanity .Vanity of vanities, all is vanity . I am more interested in serving my beloved President and country” .

The Minister said that he and volunteers of the OGI know all the people trying to fabricate stories. They know the individuals posing as KABINEH TURAY and CONIA LAHAI and their motives .

He has promised to lodge a personal complaint to President Ernest Koroma about the destabilizing activities of certain individuals in America who are bent on destroying the name of the party .

The Minister is admonishing all Sierra Leoneans to stop spreading false rumours and help rebrand and develop Mother Sierra Leone.