Former President Ernest Bai Koroma

Abubakar Hashim/ Freetown

As intensive investigations are ongoing on the November 26 coup attempt, the permanent residence of former President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma at his country home in Makeni, in northern Sierra Leone, where he has been living since 2018, after exiting from office, has been barricaded by security operatives.

The reason for the beefing up of security around his permanent residence in Makeni is partly due to the request of the former President, as he did at his private residence at Goderich in Freetown where he currently resides.
This move is purely for security reasons.

Since he was invited by the Sierra Leone IGP on November 27, a day after the coup attempt, to Freetown, on a 24 hour notification, he has been on intensive investigations at the CID headquarters in Freetown.

Since then, he has been living at his private residence at Goderich , where he is currently on restricted movements.

He is only allowed three family members and three political associates, who are routinely allowed in, but can be restricted out for security reasons. He cannot step out, without the “ expressed permission “ of the IGP.

The November 26 coup attempt has changed the socio political and economic landscape of the country.

Though the curfew has been lifted and a return of an uneasy calm, Freetown, the capital, is beset with power challenges as the main power station at Kingtom was vandalised by hoodlums, few days ago, resulting in ongoing epileptic power supply.

The country is resource rich, but underdeveloped. Freetown is a peninsula surrounded by water, but there is an acute shortage of water in the city and beyond.

The final outcome of the current investigations of the former President, will determine largely the trajectory of events in the country ahead.