By Bampia James Bundu:

Strategic Communications Unit,

Ministry of Information and Communications

The Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice has revealed at a press conference in the conference room of the Ministry of Information and Communications on Tuesday, 12th January 2021, that it has commenced legal action to confiscate properties belonging to Persons of Interest with ruling already delivered in 15 of the first 20 cases involving houses and lands as part of the recovery process in the implementation of the Commissions of Inquiry recommendations.

Principal Legal Consultant in the Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lahai Momoh Farma, explained that the grace period for all those that were indicted in the COI  reports expired on the 24th of December 2020.

According to him, the documents in respect of the 20 orders they took to court are presently with the Master and Registrar for approval and onward submission to the Government Printer for gazetting.

“Once gazetted we will announce the names and locations of the confiscated properties for the public to know,” Mr Farma assured, adding that the President had been magnanimous enough to give all the indictees 90 days to repay all that they had allegedly embezzled but up to this moment some are hiding behind appeal.

“An appeal is not a stay of execution of judgment which will  be implemented anyway. If the appellants win their appeal whatever might have been taken from them will be returned. But if on the other hand they lose the appeal they will forfeit everything and even be asked to pay interest on the principal they are supposed to pay plus cost,” the Principal Legal Consultant warned.

Mr. Farma used the opportunity to urge the 136 persons found wanting by the COI to adhere or face the full force of the law.

He said that government will use all peaceful or aggressive means if necessary to ensure that all the monies in the COI reports are recovered.

He disclosed that 85 of the persons of interest have appealed but that will not stop them from recovering what is due the state.

He informed the media that the accounts of all persons of interest had been frozen, except for few who have been given clearance to access their monies. “If it causes us to take the monies in their accounts to repay their loot we will do it; and if those monies are not enough, we will confiscate their properties and sell them until they fully repay,” he said.

The press conference was moderated by the erudite Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Madam Mamadi Gobeh Kamara, who admonished journalists to use the information they had received judiciously