A Nigerian presidential jet was seen flying out of Freetown Airport Friday carrying former Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma accused of plotting to overthrow the government of incumbent President Julius Maada Bio.
ECOWAS brokered the deal to have Koroma fly to Nigeria for ‘medical treatment’ to douse tension generated from the controversial presidential elections in June 2023.
On November 26, 2023, gunmen launched a series of attacks in Sierra Leone, breaking into a key armoury, military barracks and prisons, freeing about 2,200 inmates. More than 20 people were killed in the violence.
The government said later that it was a foiled coup led mostly by Koroma’s bodyguards. They summoned the ex-president for questioning at the start of December and charged him with treason on January 3.
Koroma condemned the attacks in a statement shortly after they happened and has denied any involvement. His lawyers have called the charges “trumped up” and part of a “political vendetta”.
