News Story

FREETOWN: ABU KOROMA: Recent heated exchanges between the Deputy Minister of Information, Mohamed Daudis Koroma, and opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) leaders highlighted his very stiff antipathy to the existence of the Unity Radio FM94.9. That angry stance took a new dimension last night at the residence of a senior APC official (who is currently out of the country). Mohamed Daudis Koroma, held, what he terms a "security meeting" with members of the APC's Security and Task Force team. A participant at the meeting, who is well-known former SLA soldier and who later fought in a sqaud commanded by Idrissa Kamara (Leatherboot), revealed details of the meetings to the New People correspondent, under the impression that Abu Koroma is a staunch sympathiser with the APC because he had served as an official in the Johnny paul junta between May 1997 and January 1998. The Task Force member revealed a macabre plan, well detailed, and well justified - a plan so well laid out that the deputy minister had already anticipated handling the public and international outcry from this action.

At the meeting, Mohamed Daudis Koroma told the APC Task Force Members that the SLPP's Unity Radio had been brought by Tejan Kabbah in order to "undermine and overthrow the APC government." He said that the recent broadcasts and discussion programmes on the Unity Radio had been calculated to "give the government a bad name" and completely discredit the government both with Sierra Leoneans and to the international community. He said that the APC government was not going to allow two governments to exist in Sierra Leone. SLPP is a government of the past and if they are trying to disrupt the plans of the new APC government by broadcasting unacceptable propaganda about the high cost of living and how hard things are for Sierra Leoneans, then they are effectively telling Sierra Leoneans to revolt against the APC government.

He reminded the meeting about the way in which the Tejan-Kabbah government used radio propaganda through FM98.1 to turn the population against and then eventually make it easy for ECOMOG to overthrow the AFRC government of Johnny Paul Koroma. He said to the Task Force members that they had tasted the bitterness of losing power then and the vengeance of the SLPP Kamajors who had killed a lot of AFRC and APC sympathisers including the late Chief Abu Black, who was related to 2 of the participants at the meeting. He said that the Task Force Members therefore had a job at hand. He announced to them that the President is planning a meeting at State House with the opposition SLPP. That meeting, he announced, will not eliminate the problem and the problem, he stressed, is the radio station itself.

He said that the international community is putting increasing pressure on the APC government by asking way too many questions. What the leadership of the APC had therefore decided was for the Task Force Members to DESTROY THE NEW UNITY RADIO EQUIPMENT. "Destroy the damn radio," he fumed angrily. He followed by saying that when the Task Force destroyed the last SLPP radio equipment, the SLPP was in disarray for a long time, and its members did not have a rallying point. He announced that Police Inspector General, Brima Acha Kamara is in the loop about pending plans and that there will be a standby force of OSD who will interfere if there is any counter-attack by the SLPP kamajor youth. He said that the APC can only cripple the SLPP if that radio station is destroyed and urged the Task Force members to "carry out [their] mission methodically."

The Task Force Member had to leave at that point as he had received a call from Goderich. He has however promised to meet with us later for a drink at Old Skool with the mission planned to be carried out any day now.