Sierra
Leone’s former president Ernest Bai Koroma, charged for his alleged role in
what authorities call an attempted coup, left the country and arrived in
Nigeria on Friday.
Koroma landed in Abuja on Friday afternoon, welcomed by National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu and the president of the ECOWAS Commission Omar Alieu Touray.
Nigeria had previously offered to allow the
ex-president to enter temporarily, which he accepted.
The 70-year-old, who led the West African nation
from 2007 to 2018, received permission from judicial authorities on Wednesday
to spend a maximum of three months in Nigeria for medical treatment.
Current president Julius Maada Bio called the
court’s decision a “humanitarian gesture” during an address to the nation on
Thursday evening.
Koroma’s adviser Sheriff Mahmud Ismail had said
earlier that the former head of state boarded a Nigerian Air Force plane,
without specifying the flight’s destination.
Sierra Leone’s High Court earlier this week
authorised the ex-president to undergo medical treatment in Nigeria “for the
most three months from the date of this order and (on condition) that his
sureties should provide regular medical updates, signed and duly authorised”.
Koroma, who has effectively been under house
arrest since December 9, was charged in early January with four offences
including treason concerning the events in late November.
On November 26, armed attackers stormed a military
armoury, two barracks, two prisons and two police stations, clashing with
security forces.
Twenty-one people were killed and hundreds of
prisoners escaped before authorities were able to regain control after what
they deemed a coup attempt by members of the armed forces.
At least 80 people were arrested in connection
with the clashes, most of them military personnel.
Comments:
Leave a Reply