The Personal Advisor to the Sierra Leone president has clarified that none of the African illegal immigrants detained by Malaysian authorities recently were Sierra Leoneans, though several of them used Sierra Leone passports to enter the country.

I personally met some of them and discovered they were not Sierra Leone citizens but had used our countrys passports to enter Malaysia, Sheikh HA Kanneh told malaysiakini before leaving for home yesterday.

Kanneh said he had to clarify the matter as the Africans rounded up in the police operation last week had either entered Malaysia illegally or were suspected to be involved in criminal cases.

He added that about 75 percent of Sierra Leones population was Muslim and his country was a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).

Our president, Ahmad Kaabah, will be attending the next OIC conference in Kuala Lumpur and we do not want our fellow Muslims in Malaysia to have a negative impression of our country, he said.

Kanneh, however, said he was not sure whether the Sierra Leone passports held by the detained Africans were genuine or false.

Closer ties

The Sierra Leone presidential advisor arrived here on Jan 3 for a month-long visit during which he signed a memorandum of understanding with the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) for the latter to set a fund for Sierra Leone Muslims.

Kanneh signed the MOU in his capacity as regional director of the International Islamic Youth League of Sierra Leone, while Abims president, Ahmad Azam Abdul Rahman, represented the movement. The fund has received an initial donation of RM19,000.

Kanneh said Sierra Leone was looking forward to establishing closer economic ties with Malaysia through new Malaysian investments there.

To date, two Malaysian companies - Petronas and Telekom - have invested in our neighbour Guinea. We hope these two companies will consider extending their investments to Sierra Leone as well, he said.

Kanneh added during his visit here, he had met with officials from Petronas, Telekom and Beras Nasional (Bernas) to discuss the possibility of the companies investing in Sierra Leone.