Former President Ernest Bai Koroma,

Abubakar Hashim/ Freetown

Former President Ernest Bai Koroma has been granted bail, to proceed on medical trip to Nigeria for three months.

He is expected to reappear in court on 6 March 2024.

Looking frail and dispirited, the former President is now set to, according to close sources, proceed to Abuja at an undisclosed date “any moment from now”

It will be recalled that ECOWAS had requested his exit to Nigeria on exile, but was rejected by thr Sierra Leone government.

His travel out of the country will douse the tense political atmosphere in the country.

His party, the APC has welcomed today’s development, describing it as “ positive “ in the country’s chequered history.

The High Court order, seen by the NEWS, states that the former President must not stay in Nigeria for more than three months as he has to stand trial at a magistrate court on 6 March, 2024.

His lead lawyer, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, remarked that his client is innocent despite charges of treason and allied offences on him.

He was charged with treason, misprision of treason, harbouring insurgents and destabilising the peace and harmony in the country. Misprision of treason, according to legal experts, is “an offence found in many common law jurisdictions around the world, having been inherited from English law. It is committed by someone who knows a treason is being or is about to be committed but does not report it to a proper authority.”

ECOWAS is yet to respond on today’s development.

Diplomatic sources revealed that it is a mere face saving device, as “ three months can be stretched further, depending on the political situation in the country and in the region.”