Sierra Leone Bar Association Demands Update on Fraudulent Lawyers’ Society Registration
Sia Lucy Kannah The Sierra Leone Bar Association has formally requested information from Freetown City Council regarding the status of an investigation into the registration of a group calling itself the “Lawyers’ Society.”
In a letter addressed to Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, OBE, the Bar Association invoked the Right to Access Information Act 2013, seeking a status report on the investigation.
The request stems from a letter issued by the council’s Chief Administrator, Raman Tom Farmar, on October 30, 2024, to the purported “Law Society of Sierra Leone.”
In that letter, Farmar alleged that the group’s certificate of registration was “suspected to have been falsely and fraudulently obtained,” citing forged signatures and an incorrect format lacking the council’s security seal. He further stated that an internal investigation had been launched.
The Bar Association’s letter expressed “grave concern” over the allegations of fraud leveled against lawyers, warning of the potential to “erode public confidence in the legal profession.”
They also highlighted Mayor Aki-Sawyer’s presence at a recent gathering of the disputed “Lawyers’ Society”, stating that it could be interpreted as either an endorsement of the organization or an attempt to undermine the ongoing investigation.
The Bar Association emphasized the lack of public communication regarding the investigation’s findings in the four months since Farmar’s letter. This silence, they argue, has created an environment of “speculation” and “cast a shadow over the integrity of a sect of lawyers who are accused of fraud.”
The Association’s letter demands clarity and transparency from the Freetown City Council on the progress and outcome of the investigation, seeking to address the serious allegations and restore public trust in the legal profession.
Of the people whom we have trust are the ones have this type of matter what are we the ordinary can do
I STAND WITH THE LAWYERS SOCIETY MEMBERS… WHEN ONE DOOR IS CLOSED, ANOTHER DOOR IS OPEN.
Every efforts by sections of society are being relentlessly pursued to fulfil the agenda aimed at uprooting & dismembering the freedom of association of individuals in this land.
Way you are not demands thief kenema elections
The level of corruption and dishonest under the SLPP led Administration is unbearable and worried.
The Bar Association Election in Kenema was fraudulent, a premeditated ploy to deny the voters to choose their candidate.
Now the Bar had been divided
We are closely following the trend, where legal sect of the society who interprete the laws of the land, are clearly on course to violate the rights and protection of the citizenry, by rightly or falsely aligning the organization with political institutions; either SLPP or APC, this is killing Ooh
The BAR has lost its grounds, Mdm Gento go and rest; stop fighting a losing battle. The credibility of the legal profession is questioned the very day you were imposed on your colleague lawyers. If you can’t get it right from Kenema, you would also not get it right from Freetown.