February 8. 2021
By: Sulaiman Stom Koroma
On the 3rd of February 2021, one of the Campaign Managers of Isha Johansen the current president of SLFA who is also seeking a second term – Victor Lewis was said to have made scandalous revelations about some other contestants in the upcoming elections in a two minutes fourteen seconds audio.
In the audio, Victor Lewis was alleged to have revealed that, the former Vice President 1 of the Sierra Leone Football Association who was also a former player of the Leone Stars, Brima Mazola Kamara stole about fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) from the FA. The audio also mentions how Brima gave false witness against Isha Johansen during her alleged corruption trails.
The build-up to elections in Sierra Leone has always been rough and tough and the Sierra Leone Football Association’s election is no exception. Over the years, aspirants for positions have been tossing of false allegations against candidates, designed to dent rival reputations or see them disqualified.
As the elections of the Sierra Leone Football Association’s draws closer (February 26th and 27th in Makeni). The airwaves are now hitting-up.
Victor Lewis in the alleged audio confirmed that Junior Navo and Alie Badara Tarawallie will win their elections unopposed.
It was also alleged in that audio that the former Honorable Member of Parliament Hon. Francis Konowa has on several occasions withdrawn Le64, 000,000 (sixty-four million Leones) from a football account without the knowledge of other FA members, and falsified the signature of the FA President during a FIFA Congress in Mexico to collect money; the same he said was repeated in Sierra Leone.
The audio also implicated Koffie who is a member of the Sierra Leone Football Association Executive for recording deliberations in executive meetings for which he apologized, Koffie is also said to have flouted FIFA’s instruction by proceeding with a Congress in Bo, which they say was in contravention of FIFA’s Article 1.
One of Isha’s main opponents in this pending election is Rodney Michael. Some social media polls have indicated that he is in a comfortable position to defeat Isha in the February 26th and 27th elections. The audio states that the reason why the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) has banned Guinean’s FA President from contesting their election is a way of setting precedence, a decision, which suggestedly might affect Rodney Michael.
It could be recalled that, recently, CAF banned one of the candidates in the Guinean FA elections because they say he never publicly declared that he had no hands in sport betting, a thing both FIFA and CAF frown at.
Meanwhile, in a press release issued by the Eastern Tigers Football Club Management, states that they are dissatisfied with what they say is a ‘made up’ audio aimed at tarnishing the character of their Chairman Victor Lewis.
To them, the audio was a ‘made up audio’ purporting to be their Chairman’s voice.
“The purported audio is designed by certain unscrupulous individuals whose primary aim is akin to tarnishing the hard-earned reputation of our Chairman. Management would like to state emphatically that Chairman Lewis has no influence whatsoever, whether actual or imagine on activities related to the electoral process of the Sierra Leone Football Association. Our Chairman’s only interest as peace and law-abiding citizen is to see the growth and development of the game at all levels”. The press release states.
In an interview with A-Z Newspaper, the Campaign Manager and Chairman of Eastern Tiger Football Club, Victor Lewis said “The audio on social media is fake and that’s not from me. I will never say such a thing because I am not like that. Why do people want to tarnish my unblemished reputation to serve their interests? This is unfortunate and sad for the game we love so much”.
The press release also states that “In this modern age where technology can manipulate forms and voids, anyone could sit at the comfort of their expertise and achieve the hideous of effects at the detriment of decent people for cheap reasons”
As the days of the elections draw closer, there has been a lot of drama happening, like the disqualification of Mohamed Kallon and Kasho Holland- Cole.
Kallon who was contesting for the position of President, and some other aspirants. Similarly, some individuals and clubs were fined One Million Leones each for what the Ethics Committee say they were bringing the game to disrepute.
With this audio now taking center stage, the eyes of football stakeholders, fans, and ordinary people will be keen to know the reactions of those that were implicated, and which actions they will take.
This is not the first time controversies of this nature have emerged. In the previous SLFA elections, some candidates were disqualified and others withdrawn from taking part. Many people believe that the elections were fraudulent and skewed towards Isha’s victory. Now, all eyes are on the 26th and 27th of February, to see whether Isha will be reelected or be the first President to be shown the exit door after serving just a single term.
