Indeed, it all started with the arrival in Conakry of Elhadj M. S Kargbo, Organizing Secretary for the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC), carrying the sum of 20,000 dollars that President Koroma would have presented to the Sierra Leonean community in Guinea through the embassy, located in the Bellevue neighborhood in the town of Dixinn.
In Conakry, Mr. Kargbo actually delivered the 20,000 dollars to the Ambassador of Sierra Leone in Guinea in order to serve as the transportation costs for activists to go to register in Kambia (situated on the border between Guinea and Sierra Leone) and to reorganize the federation of the ruling APC party in Guinea.
Aimed at the large community of Sierra Leoneans living in Guinea, this amount has ended up creating a division between the leaders of APC from Freetown and Sierra Leoneans residing in Conakry who accused M.S. Kargbo of diverting the money sent by President Ernest Bai Koroma.
APC officials said in Conakry, that the president of Sierra Leone would have given to Mr S Elhadj Kargbo, Political Affairs of the presidential party, a sum of 120,000 dollars for the federation of Conakry. But they believe he has presented to the Sierra Leonean ambassador stationed in Conakry the amount of 20.00 dollars.
The same sources argue that $ 70,000 dollars was also sent to Liberia to prepare for the APC presidential campaigners in Monrovia. Corroborating sources indicate that on Tuesday, January 31, a fight broke out between members of the delegation from APC in Freetown and those of the Federation of Conakry at a "ritual sacrifice ceremony" on behalf of the party organized at the headquarters of the Federation of APC at Bellevue neighborhood, Kamelya sector in the municipality of Dixinn.
Reportedly, APC members from Freetown and led by Adel Dandas have reassured President Ernest Bai Koroma and the national office of APC that they will be able to identify in Guinea over 20,000 voters in his favor. The delegation came to Conakry APC and promised to identify Guinean voters who speak English.
In an attempt to end this division within the Sierra Leonean community in Guinea our sources revealed that the Deputy Ambassador of Sierra Leone in Guinea, Fode Laye Koromah have made threats against any repatriation of Sierra Leoneans who refused to be enrolled to vote for President Koroma at the next presidential election.
Faced with these threats, our sources continue, Wilfried Stope, the President of Sierra Leonean youths gathered representing an association called ’’The Voice of the People’’, based in Bellevue, have reacted sharply to Mr. Laye Koromah, before saying that they will suspend all political activities within the APC Federation in Conakry.
"We are suspending until further notice our participation in all activities of the Federation of APC in Conakry," said Wilfried Stopes in Conakry.
Faced with threats from the APC Youth Federation in Conakry, officials want the Sierra Leone President to use every means to identify the voters of Sierra Leonean decent in Guinea against bank notes that will be distributed for President Ernest Bai Koroma.
According to Miss Mabinty Fofana, a student in her final year in high school Alleluia Crusher, the team of Mr. Elhadj S Kargbo visited this establishment to call on all pupils aged 18 years and over to go and be registered in Kambia in exchange for the money.
Some reliable sources argued that busloads of APC activists should left past Thursday, February 2nd, from Conakry and the prefectures of Coyah and Dubréka towards Kambia to go and be enrolled on the voters list to vote for President Ernest Bai Koromah.
Contacted repeatedly by Conakryinfos for his side of the story, the ambassador from Sierra Leone in Guinea, has been unreachable.
While waiting to find common ground between the Sierra Leonean nationals in Guinea, the money sent by President Ernest Bai Koroma to serve the traveling expenses of voters to go and be enrolled in Kambia and reorganize the presidential party in Conakry, continues to divide voters who still do not know who are undecided between incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma and the opposition candidate, the retired general, Maada Bio SLPP (Sierra Leone Peoples Party).
