Journalists working for Al Jazeera English have uncovered corruption in the
office of Sierra Leone¹s Vice-President, Samuel Sumana. The detailed
undercover investigation features in the documentary Timber!, broadcast at
22h30 GMT on Wednesday 23 November 2011 as part of Al Jazeera¹s Africa
Investigates series.
A 2006 European Union report identified logging as the leading cause of
environmental degradation in Sierra Leone. According to the Sierra Leone
Forestry Ministry, unless immediate action is taken against logging, all of
the country¹s forests as well as the many endangered animal and plant
species they support could disappear by 2018. The President, His
Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma, has made no secret of his concern about
logging and his desire that it should cease. The government of Sierra Leone
has officially outlawed the practice several times.
Emmy award-winning Sierra Leonean journalist Sorious Samura discovered
illegal felling of rare hard wood in several parts of the country. In a
number of meetings with illegal loggers, Samura posed as a businessman
interested in illegal timber exporting. Despite laws prohibiting felling of
trees without license, he found illicit logging taking place in all the
forest areas he visited. He also met local officials all too willing to
supply him with illegal wood. In one instance a local Paramount Chief not
only offered to sell him several tons of illegally cut wood, but also to
introduce Samura to high level contacts within the Sierra Leonean government
to help him breach the ban on timber exports.
In the second half of the investigation, Samura¹s colleague, the
multiple-award-winning Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, visited the
Vice-President¹s office undercover. Anas and a colleague, again posing as
businessmen, met with His Excellency The Vice-President Samuel Sumana and
two of his friends, who claimed to be official advisors.
Later the two men, Alex Mansaray and Momoh Konte, sought and accepted cash
payments from the Œbusinessmen¹, which they claimed would help secure the
Vice-President¹s support for a timber export business that the undercover
reporters wished to establish.
Vice-President Sumana later admitted to Al Jazeera that he knew the men but
said their claims to be his advisors were false and that he hadn¹t received
any money solicited by them on his behalf.
Of one attempt by Alex Monsaray to extract $50,000 from the undercover team,
Vice-President Sumana said, ³Alex was acting solely on his own accord
without any prior discussion with me.²
His statement did not explain how Mansaray and Konte came to be using his
office to secure bribes in the first place.
Commenting on the outcome of the investigation, Samura said, ³As in many
parts of Africa, timber has become the new diamonds. The country¹s forests
are at risk of being completely wiped out. For unscrupulous foreign
investors their ultimate goal is getting their wood and making maximum
profit. For the corrupt Sierra Leoneans, it¹s about lining their pockets
without any care for the future consequences for the innocent people who
will have to pay the price.²
Timber! is the third of six investigations in the Africa Investigates series
that puts flesh on Al Jazeera¹s ambition to give voice to the voiceless. In
a world-first, Africa Investigates gives some of Africa¹s best journalists
the opportunity to pursue high-level investigative targets across the
continent using their unique perspective and local knowledge to put
corruption, exploitation and abuse under the spotlight.
Africa Investigates can be seen each week at the following times GMT:
Wednesday: 22:30; Thursday: 09:30; Friday: 03:30; Saturday: 16:30; Sunday:
22:30; Monday: 09:30; Tuesday: 03:30; Wednesday: 16:30. For more details,
please go to www.aljazeera.com/programmes/AfricaInvestigates
<http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/AfricaInvestigates>
Credits: Kevin Kriedemann
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