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Prominent political commentator and senior journalist Dr Sylvia Olayinka Blyden has sharply criticised Chief Minister Dr David Moinina Sengeh over his response to a recent attempted WhatsApp scam targeting Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor Bah, arguing that the incident exposes broader weaknesses in Sierra Leone’s national security framework.
Dr Blyden’s comments followed social media exchanges in which Minister Bah disclosed that he had narrowly escaped a WhatsApp scam after a fraudster requested money through an Orange Money account.
In response, Chief Minister Sengeh called for the arrest of those responsible and stated that authorities must make it “very costly” for criminals to hack people’s phones. Minister Bah subsequently agreed, urging telecommunications operators and security agencies to track phone numbers linked to fraudulent activities.
Reacting to the exchanges, Dr Blyden questioned why senior government officials were publicly discussing measures to address a problem she said had persisted for several years.
She argued that, as a member of the National Security Council (NSC), the Chief Minister should already be aware of the mechanisms available to combat such crimes rather than suggesting what should be done. According to her, the continued prevalence of mobile phone and mobile money scams reflects shortcomings in the country’s national security response.
Dr Blyden further described the public statements by both the Chief Minister and the Information Minister as an indictment of the government’s security architecture, noting that scammers have continued to exploit registered Sierra Leonean mobile phone numbers despite existing regulatory and security structures.
Drawing on her experience as a former member of the National Security Council during the administration of former President Ernest Bai Koroma, Dr Blyden maintained that such fraudulent activities would have been identified and addressed more swiftly under the previous security framework.
She contended that the persistence of mobile money and phone-based scams demonstrates the need for stronger coordination among security agencies, telecommunications companies and other relevant institutions responsible for safeguarding the public against cyber-enabled fraud.
Dr Blyden concluded by urging the government to strengthen its response to digital fraud and improve the effectiveness of the country’s national security systems in tackling the growing threat of scams targeting mobile phone users.
