Former President Ernest Bai Koroma visited his parents’ graves and his late sister’s resting place on Tuesday, a day after thousands welcomed him home to his political stronghold.

Koroma, accompanied by former First Lady Sia Nyama Koroma, their daughter Alice Mansaray and son-in-law Ibrahim Mansaray, prayed at the family residence on Sylvanus Street in Makeni before visiting the graves of his parents, Sylvanus Koroma and Alice Koroma, according to a family statement.

The family then traveled to Yoni, on the outskirts of Makeni, to pray at the graveside of Koroma’s late elder sister, Marian Admire Sesay.

Sesay died in Accra, Ghana, in December 2020, according to a party announcement at the time. The Yoni, Bombali campus of the University of Makeni is named after Sylvanus Koroma, a noted educationist and Wesleyan Church bible school teacher.

Sylvanus Koroma was of Temne and Loko heritage, while Alice Koroma, who died in July 2012 at age 80, was an ethnic Biriwa Limba and a longtime primary school teacher in Makeni, according to biographical records. The couple had seven children and resided in Makeni.

The private pilgrimage followed Monday’s public homecoming at Wusum Field, where Koroma addressed a large crowd and declared himself available as a father figure to all Sierra Leoneans regardless of political affiliation.

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“I am available to serve as a father figure and adviser not only for the APC but the SLPP and any other organisations in Sierra Leone,” he told supporters, according to the Sierra Leone Monitor.

Koroma returned permanently to Sierra Leone on Sept. 6 after more than two years in Nigeria, where he had traveled in January 2024 for medical treatment while facing treason charges linked to the November 2023 attacks on military and prison facilities. The government discontinued those charges in July 2026. Koroma has consistently denied any involvement.

He arrived in Freetown accompanied by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu. He was received by Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Rahman Swarray and senior APC officials.

Koroma, who governed from 2007 to 2018, has since met with President Julius Maada Bio at State House and thanked him for enabling his return. He announced he would channel his efforts through his foundation and confirmed he would neither contest the APC chairmanship nor seek the presidency again. His homecoming comes ahead of presidential elections set for 2028.