UK Mission Refutes ‘Fagadama’ Story

Concord Times (Freetown)

Regina Pratt

27 June 2011

Freetown — Head of Chancery at the Sierra Leone High Commission in the United Kingdom has refuted a story published on Sierra Update website on Tuesday June 21 about ‘fagadama’ being found at the mission.

Speaking to Concord Times over the weekend, Mrs. Florence Bangalie said the whole story about what was purported to be ‘fagadama’ was rubbish left behind by cleaners in a next door building. She said the incident happened on Monday 13th June 2011 and that the rubbish was not even in front of the office of the High Commission as alleged by the story but in front of the neighbour building.

The head of Chancery informed Concord Times that the whole issue was started by one of their local staff, Mr. Ulric Caramba-Coker who she said saw the rubbish and concluded that it was ‘fagadama’.

“The rubbish was not even in front of our office but in our next door neighbour’s,” she said, adding that Mr. Caramba-Coker just wanted to create confusion and problem in the mission.

She said Caramba-Coker did not inform her and other members of staff but went ahead and informed the press attaché Sorie Sudan Sesay. She said the press attaché, without informing the High Commissioner and her, went ahead and erroneously published the incident on his Sierra Update website on Tuesday 21 June 2011, without even watching the CCTV camera.

“I immediately called the security Michael Kargbo for further investigations,” she said, noting that the entire staff including the High Commissioner were summoned to watch the CCTV camera as Sorie Sudan had claimed that somebody must have deposited it either in the night or in the early hours of the morning.

“After watching the CCTV camera it was clearly discovered that when the cleaners in the neighbouring office came out to dispose of the rubbish in their building on Monday 13th June at about 10:35am, some of the rubbish in the plastic bag spilled on the ground,” she explained.

Mrs. Bangalie asserted that it was some of the rubbish left behind by the cleaners that Mr. Caramba-Coker saw and referred to as ‘fagadama’.

She said she was shocked when the news was received at the Chancery that ‘fagadama’ was found in front of the office of the Sierra Leone High Commission in the UK.

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