As we go to press, latest information reaching this newspaper last night have confirmed that the embattled Julius Maada Bio is refusing to take telephone calls from the head of the foreign delegation comprising the Economic Community of West Africa States ECOWAS, the African Union AU, the Commonwealth, and others. The coward ‘Brigadier’ Maada Bio is not brave enough to even take the telephone call from the Head of the delegation Mrs Aja Fatoumata CM Jallow-Tambajang the former Vice President of Gambia. It shows that it is just a matter of time for the people to see the end of the Bio era. (Photo: Aja Fatoumata and Maada Bio).

Sources say Maada Bio is deliberately dodging the telephone calls from Aja Fatoumata who wants to know when Maada Bio will be returning home to facilitate the arrival of the international delegation to Sierra Leone where they are mandated to carry out their assessment of the ongoing Tripartite Investigations Committee. The high-powered delegation was expected to arrive on Tuesday June 4 for a three-day visit but the Assessment Team halted their arrival because Maada Bio who is supposed by law to welcome them was and is still out of Sierra Leone in faraway South Korea in a tour that would have been done by the Trade and Foreign Ministers.

But Maada Bio is a dodger who is just digging his own grave every day. And that was why the head of the delegation was calling Maada Bio to ascertain when he would return home to welcome them but Bio is still out of the country. Reports on Monday confirmed that Maada Bio would arrive today but from the look of things, it is highly improbable that the runaway and illegal President would not return today as expected. His continued absence from Sierra Leone is making it practically difficult but not impossible for the delegation to land and to carry out their mandate to restore constitutional rule in Sierra Leone. (Photo: Communique signed on October 18, 2023).

It is obviously embarrassing and strange that a President is running away from his own country and even afraid to return home simply because of fear of being squeezed by the international community regarding the disputed and fraudulent June 24, 2023 multi-tier elections. But diplomatic sources have intimated that whether Maada Bio comes or not, the work to assess what the APC party and the ruling SLPP party has done to implement the 8 Points Resolutions to Sierra Leone would not be deterred. Presently, Maada Bio is going around talking to leaders in ECOWAS and Africa to beg them not to allow ECOMOG troops to come to Sierra Leone for stabilisation. Maada Bio is surely afraid for the full contingent of the ECOMOG troops to land.

Moreover, Dr Sam Sesay who is heading the APC Technical Team said APC has handed over all its RRF forms to the Tripartite Investigations Committee as requested but added that the jittery and stubborn SLPP regime is not fully cooperating. Reports say the 71% of the RRF forms submitted by the APC party have already clocked 57% of votes cast in favour of the APC leader meaning Dr Samura Kamara was duly elected as President-Elect during the June 24, 2023 elections. And the remaining 29% votes cast ballots still uncounted are from the areas of the APC strongholds of north and northwest namely Port Loko and Kambia Districts, etc. It means when all the votes are counted Dr Samura Kamara would clock nearly 70%. (Photo: Maada Bio in South Korea).

Sources close to the Tripartite Committee say the ECSL chairman Mohamed Kenewui Konneh and the other ECSL commissioners are still refusing to release all the RRF forms and the disaggregated data in their possession to authenticate the results they declared for the victory of Maada Bio. This is bad news for Maada Bio. And after all the evidential documents and investigative reports have been compiled, they would be forwarded to the Head of Tripartite Secretariat Judge Kate Sullivan from Australia who would look at the reports and evidence and from there she would make the correct recommendations based on all the pieces of evidence available.

Political observers are wondering why Maada Bio is secretly soliciting supports from ECOWAS and African Union leaders to stop the arrival of ECOMOG troops in Sierra Leone. Sources say Maada Bio is spending lots of money as bribes to convince ECOWAS and AU to halt the process. But the ECOWAS and AU leaders are telling Maada Bio that the matter is above ECOWAS and the African Union. The confused.com Maada Bio should know that it is the United Nations Security Council UNSC that is responsible for what is happening in Sierra Leone. Last year, the UNSC made it clear that they would support whatever stance taken by ECOWAS to restore constitutional rule in the West African sub-region. Bio’s days are numbered indeed. Freedom, unity, justice and progress coming to Sierra Laeone.