Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma has told a leading freedom of information campaigner that a FOI bill will be passed in September.
The president made his comment Sept. 3 to Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai during a conversation at the launch for Koroma’s biography.
Koroma said that he “has given the go ahead for the Freedom of Information Bill to be passed into law in Sierra Leone,” Abdulai reported.
The president added that “as soon as Parliament resumes in September, the bill will be passed.” He concluded that “I wanted to have it passed before I go to the UN, but Parliament will be on recessed. We have to ensure that we build the structures to implement the law.”
In addition, the minister of information also predicted September passage, Abdulai said.
Adbulai said he was very optimistic and excited about this news.
Abdulai is founder and executive director of the Society for Democratic Initiatives, an NGO that focuses on human rights education, freedom of expression, legal aid, prison monitoring, and anticorruption campaigns in Sierra Leone. A lawyer by profession, he is editor-in-chief of the quarterly Demo-Rights Magazine and author of dozens of articles and reports on human rights in the region.
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