{"id":53190,"date":"2013-02-20T06:20:40","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T06:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=53190"},"modified":"2013-02-20T06:20:40","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T06:20:40","slug":"bidding-yet-another-farewell-to-a-sierra-leone-diplomat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=53190","title":{"rendered":"Bidding Yet Another Farewell to a Sierra Leone Diplomat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Friday, the 15<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0of February, 2013, witnessed the gathering of Sierra Leone nationals living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the Chancery of the Sierra Leone Embassy in Riyadh to offer yet another session of supplications for the late Head of Chancery.\u00a0 <em>(Photo: new Head of Chancery, Mr. Umaru Dura)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Mr. Ibrahim S. Yilla died in a Riyadh hospital after a brief illness on Saturday, 10<sup>th<\/sup> November, 2012. Although the Sierra Leone community in Saudi Arabia, led by the collaborative efforts of the Sierra Leone Embassy and the Sierra Leone National\u2019s Union, had earlier played a significant role in the funeral arrangements that culminated in the repatriation of the late career-diplomat\u2019s body to Sierra Leone and the eventual burial at his home town of Kambia, this time however, the presence of Ambassador Wusu B. Munu and the new Head of Chancery, Mr. Umaru Dura \u2013 both of whom had just jet in from Sierra Leone \u2013 as well as that of the late man\u2019s wife, Mrs. Jeneba Yilla and other family members, added more weight and clout to the huge attendance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The meeting at the Sierra Leone Embassy was chaired by the indefatigable Press Attach\u00e9 of the Sierra Leone Embassy in Riyadh, Alhaji M.B Jalloh, who, as the main Embassy representative that witnessed the procession in Sierra Leone, gave a full coverage of all the events that took place therein.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_50128\" style=\"width: 458px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/The_late_Head_of_Chancery-Ibrahim-Yilla.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-50128\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50128\" alt=\"The late Ibrahim Yilla\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/The_late_Head_of_Chancery-Ibrahim-Yilla.jpg\" width=\"448\" height=\"336\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-50128\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The late Ibrahim Yilla<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Giving a eulogy of the late Ibrahim Yilla, His Excellency the Ambassador was on one occasion interrupted by a flow of tears as he recounted the last communication he had with the late man. He went further to introduce the wife and brother of the late man, Mrs. Yilla and Dr Sorie Yilla respectively.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">On behalf of the Embassy staff, the Ambassador specifically thanked the President of the Sierra Leone National\u2019s Union, Osman Kargbo and the entire Sierra Leone community in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the vital support of nationalism rendered during his absence.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Speaking on behalf of the family, the brother of the deceased, Dr. Yilla commended the efforts of the Embassy staff and the entire Sierra Leone community in Saudi Arabia for the immense cooperation and the solidarity manifested during such a trying times.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The gathering also presented a perfect opportunity for Ambassador Munu to introduce the new officers who had arrived to replace out-going ones, namely: The Head of Chancery, Mr. Umaru Dura. First Secretary,\u00a0Salamu Koroma, and Third Secretary, Sulaiman Tunkara,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">In his response, Mr. Dura pledged an open-door policy to address all concerns of Sierra Leoneans living in this part of the world and went on to admonish Sierra Leoneans to project the image of their country and be law-abiding at all times.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The President of Sierra Leone Nationals Union, Mr. Osman Kargbo, former presidents, Messrs. Ibrahim Sillah, Unisa Kanu and Ibrahim Koi Dowui, all gave brief speeches buttressing the need for solidarity and cooperation amongst nationals and a continuous collaboration with the Ambassador and the Embassy staff for the welfare of the nationals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Opening prayers, Islamic supplications for the deceased diplomat and closing prayers were done by members of the Da\u2019wah Committee including Sheik Marouf Sesay and Sheik Baila Bah, who rounded up the evening&#8217;s event with a sermon that dwelt on the significance of saving for the Hereafter. The vote of thanks was given by Mr. Hamid Tunkara, a high-profiled, respectable member within the rank and file of the elderly council.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The meeting was brought to an end with closing prayers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><i>By Unisa Kanu, Riyadh<\/i>.\u00a0 (<i>The author is a former President of the SLNU in Saudi Arabia)<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><b><i>Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<hr align=\"center\" size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" \/>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday, the 15th\u00a0of February, 2013, witnessed the gathering of Sierra Leone nationals living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the Chancery of the Sierra [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":53191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,751],"tags":[1025,1522,14943,14944],"class_list":["post-53190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-global-news","tag-alhaji-jalloh","tag-ambassador-wusu-b-munu","tag-ibrahim-yillah","tag-umaru-dura"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}