No Sierra Leonean Presidential Guards Were Involved in Irishman’s Kidnapping

Sierra Leone - False Claims

The Irish Times Newspaper’s claims that presidential guards of the Sierra Leone government were involved in the kidnapping of an Irish businessman who it said was bundled into a 4×4 from outside his hotel in Freetown, handcuffed and taken away from the scene, is a total whitewash. Quite often the Foreign Press assumes that all uniformed officers in the military of any African Government belong to a special presidential guard unit. This is not the case at all in most African countries. The presidential guard protecting the President of Sierra Leone is made up of a small unit of professionally handpicked military and police personnel who are well trained and disciplined, and who are constantly impressed upon about the seriousness of their responsibilities.

The president of Sierra Leone takes the issue of national security very seriously, and would not condone any acts of violence in any form whatsoever. It is indeed preposterous as suggested by some rag-tag tabloid in Sierra Leone that members of the close-protection unit were involved in the kidnapping.

The onus is on the Irish Times to prove that the men who attacked the Businessman were indeed Presidential guards. It is quite irresponsible for any newspaper, let alone a well respected medium like the Irish Times, to engage in foolish propaganda to tarnish the good name of the Sierra Leone government. To simply say that a certain Strieby Logan, chief of operations at an organised crime unit attached to the national police, told them  that two of the arrested men after being intercepted by police, were members of Sierra Leone’s presidential guard, is not sufficient.  Until they can prove their claims, the Irish Times should retract the said article in their publication. Failing to do so can only create doubts about the real intentions of the Irish Times newspaper.

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