The Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr has asserted that there are no corruption charges against her, and did not pay any money to the Anti-Corruption Commission of Sierra Leone (ACC) in respect of that.

She made this assertion during AYV’s Hot Seat Program, regarding the over Le180 Million (old) Leones, ACC recovered from the Freetown City Council (FCC) in August. The recovered monies were monies the 2019 Audit Report flagged as inappropriately paid from FCC’s funds by the Council, to the Head of the Mayor’s Delivery Unit.

Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr said that there are no corruption charges against her and she paid nothing to ACC, adding that the allegations are media ploy to paint her into something that she is not.

She said that they targeted someone that is working in the Council, adding that the approval process she went through before travelling was sighed off by all the processes.

Mayor Aki-Sawyerr expressed that the same issue raised against her office in the Audit Report, was also raised on page 434 in respect to the Office of the First Lady, suggesting that if ACC could go after her, then the Commission should also go after the Office of the First Lady.

“The Auditor General said that in their view, we don’t have procedure that matched that. The Auditor raised the same issues on page 434 in respect of the Office of the First Lady,” Aki-Sawyerr said.

The Mayor noted that in the past they have travelled with so many people and there have never been a problem, adding that there is a determination somewhere that she must be maligned.

Mayor Aki-Sawyerr further said that they ACC called her to appear with a surety and to repay the money, adding that she and her lawyers said they will not pay the money.

“My position remains the same. I did not steal or hold any money,” she reiterated.

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