Indicted Sierra Leone ex-president Koroma flies to Nigeria

Former president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, left the country on Friday and flew to Nigeria despite facing treason charges. The 70-year-old Koroma was allowed to travel abroad on medical grounds, despite being charged with four offences related to an alleged role in a failed military attempt to overthrow the government in November.

The decision to allow Koroma to leave the country came amid concerns that his indictment could exacerbate tensions linked to the 2023 election. The election saw President Julius Maada Bio reelected for a second term, despite the main opposition candidate rejecting the results and international partners questioning the vote.

Koroma’s lawyers have described the charges against him as “trumped up”, and part of a political vendetta against him.

A Reuters reporter witnessed Koroma departing on a Nigerian presidential plane at the airport in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, on Friday afternoon. The plane later landed in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, where Koroma was greeted by Nigerian officials and the president of West Africa’s political and economic bloc ECOWAS, according to a second Reuters reporter at the scene.

ECOWAS did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment on the situation.

The president of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, was in Sierra Leone last week for the second time since the November coup last year, raising speculation that the bloc brokered a deal with the Sierra Leone authorities to allow Koroma to relocate.

(Reporting by Umaru Fofana in Freetown and Felix Onuah in Abuja; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Alison Williams)