AWARENESS TIMES SMEAR CAMPAIGN ON MAADA BIO: THE US $35,000 FUNERAL CONTRIBUTION AND THE ALLEGATION OF INSULTS ON JOHN BENJAMIN By Yusuf Keketoma Sandi I have told Sylvia Blyden, Publisher of Awareness Times Newspaper on a number of occasions on social media that the name “Maada Bio” is just a business strategy for her newspaper to increase sales and circulations targeting some gullible APC members and the few anti-bio sentiments within the SLPP. For almost three years now the Awareness Times Newspaper has run one of the most hateful and distorted smear campaigns against the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio but ironically the young man’s popularity is growing by leaps and bounds as evident in the most recent funeral procession of the late Pres. Kabbah in Freetown. The reason is simple: our people maybe POOR but they are not FOOLS. Lies, smears and distortions can only persuade the few converts but it won’t wash with the many hardship-stricken people as they are NO replacement for the bread and butter issues. Therefore, the publication earlier this week by Awareness Times that Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio claimed of a $35,000 contribution to the Tejan Kabbahs is at best mischievous and at worst preposterous. But it is most unfortunate that a Public Notice alleged to have been written by the family and close friends of the late Former President Kabbah will be so exploited to be used by Awareness Times as part of its FAILED smear campaign against Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio. This is because any reasonable person could have expected such a Public Notice to have been issued if the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio himself had made such a claim. Here was a man whom upon the death of the late Pres. Kabbah had to cancel all his scheduled meetings in London. When he arrived in Freetown on the Friday 21st March he insisted on that very day even before he went home that he should visit the residence of the late President Kabbah. As I understand it, at the residence of the late Pres. Kabbah, it was the SLPP Western Region Chairman Hon. Manso Dumbuya who explained the reason for the visit of the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio in what was a very big gathering. Therefore, even to the simple minds it would have been reasonable that if the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio were to make any financial contribution for the funeral he should have said or made it at that visit to the family. More importantly, the legacy and service that the late Pres. Kabbah rendered to us as a people can never be equated with anyone’s financial contribution towards his funeral arrangement. This is because the least we would have done as a nation was to have accorded him a very befitting funeral. And today we can all be proud of ourselves that irrespective of our political views and statuses in society, we all mourned together and were united in grief as we laid him to rest last Sunday. Hence, for the family and close friends of the Late Pres. Kabbah to allegedly issue such Public Notice in reaction to claims made by “certain individuals” who do not represent the views of Rtd Brig, Julius Maada Bio many reasonable people will question the motive behind the Public Notice. Take For instance, during the Prince Donation-gate we all remember when the Special Executive Assistant, Sylvia Blyden inaccurately informed the world that the Prince of Saudi Arabia had donated US $2 million to the Government of Sierra Leone. Despite the political fistfights which even led the Minister of Information, Alpha Kanu, to refer to Sylvia Blyden as “dangerous and demented rumour monger” and a “perennial liar”, for any reasonable person to have said that such a factually inaccurate information by Sylvia Blyden represented the view of President Koroma that would have been a dishonest and unfair characterisation of the President. It was why the government information machinery including the State House Communication’s Unit read the Riot Act to Sylvia Blyden. And here we are talking about someone who has the rank of a cabinet minister and very close to the Presidency putting out inaccurate information but that such false information as we were told was never taken to be directly from the President. Many reasonable people may wonder how on earth can a very respectable family like the Tejan Kabbahs put out such a Public Notice when they know for a fact that the Rtd. Brig. Juliuss Maada Bio has never made such claims or even those they refer to as “certain individuals” neither represent his view nor speak on behalf of the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio. On the alleged incident in Kenema, I have personal respect for Mr. John Benjamin who was a former Chairman of our party and unfortunately I may not have enough facts to comment on the alleged incident in Kenema. But how I wish the same way in which Mr. John Benjamin is reported in the Awareness Times that he will summon the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio to advise him to disassociate himself from some associates of him, will be the same way that our former Chairman may wish to disassociate himself from many of the insults, vile attacks and crude smear campaign that his son, John Benjamin Jr continues to heap on the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio on the internet. In one of his desperate smear campaigns, this is what John Benjamin Jr wrote on the internet telling the world about Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio and a jibe on Pres. Ernest Koroma on Wednesday 26th February 2014 posted at 9:59pm: “Maada Bio was the one got on a private jet with Ernest Koroma and went with him to visit Blaise Compoare in Burkina Faso. One of the financiers of our rebel war and provider of the most ruthless rebels that our soldiers fought against. This was right after C Thorpe stole the election from Solo B and handed power over to Ernest. NO one in the party knows why and what happened in Ouagadougou. Could it be that Maada worked with Ernest to steal the election from Solo B so that he could launch his bid for flagbearer?? Who knows...Bio also went to Guinea to visit Alpha Konate without key party officials when they fraudulently awarded the elections to Ernest again. Every time there is a problem with elections, Bio visits a foreign leader and comes back quiet about standing up for the party or challenging Ernest. Is he being threatened or bribed?? We will never know, since he never reports on what happened or what was said. Yet you want to point at others. Looks like the biggest sellout looks the most like your flagbearer candidate eternal Bio...time and history will tell….This is John Benjamin Jr...and I approve this message” Set aside the fact that the content of John Benjamin Jr’s crude insult against the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio has so many factual inaccuracies but that John Benjamin Jr deliberately tried to smear both Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio and Pres. Ernest Koroma for a visit to Blaise Compaore whom he refers to as “one of the financiers of our rebel war” is shameful. For the son of the former SLPP Chairman to insinuate that the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio worked with Pres. Koroma to steal the election from Solo B so he can launch his flagbearer bid is a disgraceful fabrication about a man, Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio, who travelled across the country and spent his personal resources in 2007 elections for an SLPP victory. Furthermore, John Benjamin Jr wrote that the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio went to Guinea to visit Alpha Konate without Key party officials when they fraudulently awarded the elections to Pres. Koroma. As a matter of fact and to correct John Benjamin Jr, the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio has at no point in time visited any “Alpha Konate” in Guinea rather following the 2012 elections the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio was invited on an official visit to Guinea by the Government of Pres. Alpha Conde. And as part of his delegation to Guinea, the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio took along the then SLPP Women’s Leader, Mrs. Isata J. Kabbah and the SLPP Bo District Chairman, Alhaji Kanja I. Sesay. As such any suggestion by John Benjamin Jr that there was no key party official, the son of the former SLPP Chairman is just being dishonest. I have tried to post verbatim this message by the son of the former SLPP Chairman as an evidence of one of the series of crude fabrications, insults and attacks that John Benjamin Jr has written against the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio for public consumption. Therefore, whilst it maybe politically convenient that at every opportunity certain members of our party has always called for the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio to disassociate himself from actions of his supporters, we must equally be honest with ourselves by asking senior members of the party to start disassociating themselves from the many insults, lies and APC-style smear campaign by their supporters against the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio. As I understand it, the former SLPP Chairman, Mr. John Benjamin may have seen this message after it was originally posted on the internet by his son but just in case he has not seen it I hope by writing about it the former SLPP Chairman may disassociate himself from this crude attacks, lies and insult by his son, John Benjamin Jr, against Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 09:32:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015