The Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS ) owes Sierra Leoneans a lot of explanation about why its multinational force — ECOMISIL —has still not deployed yet in Sierra Leone.
The subregional military force was supposed to have entered Sierra Leone on September 15 but they did not show up and there was no explanation from Nigeria, whose President , His Excellency Bola Tinubu, is the Chair of ECOWAS, or any ECOWAS country.
Amidst frenzied and tremendous expectations from many opposition APC supporters who look upon the deployment of ECOMISIL with hope that the force would help bring electoral justice to Sierra Leone following last year’s rigged presidential elections by President Maada Bio, confidence remained high that ECOMSIL would still deploy because there was a timeline cushion —– Between September 15 to the 30th –for the arrival.
However, yesterday September 30 came and there was still no ECOMISIL and no word from President Maada Bio or ECOWAS.
There are fears that President Maada Bio’s hands are in the delay.
Mr. Andrew Kamara, a staunch APC member and supporter of 2018 and 2023 presidential candidate, Dr. Samura Kamara, told COCORIOKO that he has classified information that President Bio is secretly against the ECOWAS decision to send the troops to Sierra Leone to help stabilize the country and restore democracy and is pushing for the mission of the force to be changed to only training. Also, Mr. Kamara disclosed that President Bio does not want the troops to be deployed in strategic locations in the city but to be stationed only at Lungi.
An official of the SLPP , for his part, attributed the delay to funding and logistical constraints.
But why is ECOWAS silent over the issue when they had been so vocal about it and even announced the September 15- 30 timeline for the deployment ? Suspiciously, even President Bio and his government are tightlipped about ECOMISIL’s coming to Sierra Leone.
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