October 22, 2018
By Sahr Morris Jnr
Brima Mazola Kamara says SLFA is run by an executive committee, not by an individual
Vice-president of Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), Brima Mazola Kamara, has reacted to the world football governing body, FIFA’s call for an investigation into an unauthorised withdrawal of funds from the SLFA’s bank account.
Kamara, who now acts as the Association’s acting President following the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) move to set aside Madam Isha Johansen and scribe Chris Kamara, admitted to utilising part of US$50,000.
According to Kamara, they utilised part of the US$50,000 accessed from an existing SLFA account and insisted that he has done nothing wrong.
He said: “The SLFA is run by an executive committee, not by an individual. We took the decision to withdraw some amount from the $50,000.”
“We’ve used the money to pay backlog salaries to secretariat staff, utility bills, customs duties for 1000 balls received from the African football governing body, CAF and customs duties for Leone Stars jerseys among other things.”
Kamara and the then assistant secretary general Abdul Rahman Swarray received full control of the SLFA administration after the ACC set-aside both Johansen and Kamara insisted that they have done nothing wrong.
“We have done nothing wrong as the money was given to run the SLFA,” he insisted. However, FIFA has asked the acting SLFA officials to return the said money.
In a statement released by the football governing authority after the Zurich meeting with officials from the Sierra Leone government, one of the resolutions reached at was that the government of Sierra Leone has agreed to investigate the unauthorised withdrawal of funds from the SLFA’s bank account following the suspension, and to ensure that any unjustified appropriation is immediately corrected.