Friday 9 September 2016

Sierra Leone FA president Isha Johansen is released

Isha Johansen is the only female president of a football association in Africa
The President of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) Isha Johansen was released from police custody late on Thursday.

However the SLFA vice president Brima Mazola Kamara and secretary general Christopher Kamara remain in detention.
The pair failed to meet their bail bonds and are still at the Criminal Investigations Department's headquarters in Freetown.
The trio denied any wrongdoing during their questioning on Thursday by the country's Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
Earlier the armed police and official's from the commission raided the SLFA secretariat and took away documents of interest to help their ongoing investigations.
The ACC picked up the three SLFA top officials after an FA Cup match on Wednesday and both Brima and Christoper have now spent two nights in detention.
Football's world governing body, Fifa, says it is monitoring the situation.
Wednesday's detentions came just after the ACC started Operation Thunderbolt, that is aimed at intensifying their fight against corruption.
An official at the ACC Patrick Sandy explained that they made the arrests due to a of lack of cooperation from the SLFA.
"We are investigating funds SLFA received from Fifa, the Confederation of African Football and the government of Sierra Leone as we have the mandate to do so," Sandy added.
"We have invited them in writing and through other means to report to our headquarters but they disregarded our invitations.
"We wrote a letter to the SLFA scribe to submit documents relating to SLFA finances but they refused to cooperate.
"Instead they wrote back stating that they are not accountable to us and it could be considered as political interference, as they are only answerable to Fifa.
"The ACC is not a political institution, we are independent."
In the past the SLFA has insisted they are only accountable to football's world governing body, Fifa.

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