The Complaints Committee of the Independent Media Commission (IMC) chaired by Commissioner Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai Esq. has on Monday, 24th October, 2022 continued hearings on the matter between the Mayor of Freetown, Her Worship Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr and Justice Radio 98.5 FM, at the Commission’s Headquarters, 54 Siaka Stevens Street, Freetown.

The public hearing was the third session in relation to a complaint from JFK & Partners acting on behalf of Her Worship the Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyer against Justice Radio’s broadcast of alleged character assignation of the Mayor. In attendance were the Complainant, Her Worship Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyer and her legal representative, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara; the Station Manager, Justice Radio 98.5 FM, Kelvin Lamin Lamdo, and the presenter of the ‘Justice Show’, Justince Boima, with their Legal Representative, Ibrahim Fayia Sawanneh Esq.

The complainant was requested to restate her complaints in the presence of the respondents, which she did; and follow-up questions for clarification were posed to the complainant by the Chairman and members of the Complaints Committee, to which she responded.

Responding to the particulars of the complaints, the General Manager of Justice Radio FM 98.5 FM, Kelvin Lamin Lamdo requested the Committee to give them time to prepare their defence, to which the Chairman of the Committee agreed. The matter was adjourned to Tuesday, 1st November 2022.

The Committee also continued with the hearing on Justice Radio 98.5FM broadcast of Monday, 10th October 2022, against the Independent Media Commission alleging that ‘four Commissioners of the IMC were operatives of the main opposition All People’s Congress party, planted in the Commission’ and that the IMC ‘is a kangaroo court’.

Present for the hearing were three out of the four accused Board members namely, Commissioners Mustapha M K Sesay (Print Media Expert) , Regina Pratt (Print Media Expert) and Ibrahim Barrie (Inter-Religious Council Representative), all of whom recused themselves from the hearing.

Justice Radio was represented by the Station Manager, Kelvin Lamin Lamdo; the Presenter of the ‘Justice Show’, Justince Boima; and their Legal Representative, Ibrahim Fayia Sawanneh Esq.

The three Commissioners present were asked to restate their complaints against the said broadcast on Justice Radio 98.5 FM, which they did accordingly.

Responding to the complaints, the Station Manager, Kelvin Lamin Lamdo, and the Presenter of the programme, Justince Boima, said they had no evidence or defence to substantiate the claims in their October 10th broadcast on Justice Radio 98.5FM, which they admitted were ‘false, baseless, and unfounded’. They, therefore, apologized to the IMC and the four affected Commissioners and promised to retract the broadcast in the interest of fairness for as much as the Commission may order.

The rulings on this matter will be communicated to the public in the shortest possible time after the Board debates and adopts the findings and recommendations of the Complaints Committee.