By Amin Kef Sesay
Chapter Five of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone that deals with the Executive branch of the Government confers the power in the President to exercise the Prerogative of Mercy. The President exercises that power twice a year, on New Year and Independence Day and it functions to ameliorate the harshness of sentencing or alleviate miscarriage of justice. Most often an offender may be pardoned or have his sentence commuted.
As enshrined in the constitution, the President may, acting in accordance with the advice of a Committee appointed by Cabinet, over which the Vice President shall preside, grant any person convicted of an offence against the laws of the country a pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions.
Against this backdrop, many were taken aback when it was recently learnt that the convicted murderer of onetime popular Disc Jockey, by the name of Sydney Buckle popularly known as DJ Cleff ,Baimba Moiforay (alias LAC) was among prisoners at the Male Correctional Centre on Pa Demba Road in Freetown who were granted the Presidential Prerogative of Mercy on the 1st January 2022.
Baimba Moiforay (alias LAC) was serving a life imprisonment, after conviction and from what was learnt he did not even spend more than five years when he was granted clemency.
Immediately the news breakout, Social Media became awash with a lot of criticisms following LAC’s release. Elder brother of the late Sydney Buckle even approached this medium in a very worried state asking us to propagate the message that with the release of the convicted murderer their family is no longer safe and that Government should do something to guarantee their safety.
There were reports doing the round that upon his release, LAC was all over the place spending money left, right and centre. A Social Media post showed him in a nightclub chilling alongside the notorious musician known as LAJ, who was also recently in conflict with the law. Some were even assuming that LAJ was slowly being lured to become the next victim of LAC’s ritual murder.
His release infuriated many and rights based organizations such as ADvocAid and Purposeful raised their voices against it.
Things took a different twist on the 17th January 2022 when the Government released a Public Notice that His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio has revoked the release of LAC and instituted an investigation into the process leading to the granting of pardon to him on the 1st January 2022.
While many have acclaimed this latest move by the Government of Sierra Leone within the realm of trying to mete out justice there is widespread fear that Baimba Moiforay alias LAC may have fled the shores of this country. However, that is yet to be determined. What many are now looking forward to is the outcome of a thorough investigation into how the Committee arrived at the decision to have him pardoned in the first place as many are of the conviction that there was something very fishy.
