It was confirmed to the Awareness Times in the early hours of today 31st July 2012, that the Presidential Candidate for the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), Mr. Julius Maada Bio recently went to collect his Voter Registration ID Card at Constituency 110 in Freetown but that when he was handed over his precious card, his face did not appear on the card in the section for photographs. Maada Bio’s face went Missing In Action (MIA) off his voter card.

This confirmation was made by the Editor of the Unity Newspaper, Mr. B.W. Bockarie, during a telephone interview with the Awareness Time at about 00:15am this morning when he was contacted by us. According to Mr. Bockarie, he got the news from a source and decided to contact one of the closest aides of Mr. Maada Bio in the person of Mr. Paul Panda, who officially confirmed to him that the information is correct.

Mr. Bockarie however quickly explained that immediately Mr. Bio collected his card and noticed that his photo was absent; he re-registered himself at the same Ward and would be collecting another registration card with his face on it very soon.

B.W. Bockarie maintained to Awareness Times that Mr. Bio was not the only person to have been faced with such scenario. According to him, hundreds of other people also faced the same problem during the process. The Unity Editor said Mr. Bio’s impugned voter ID card had all other relevant information therein but with exception of his picture which was inexplicably absent.

It can be recalled that a series of strange developments have been happening around Mr. Maada Bio. When he went on a Thank you tour to Bo last year, a mystery stone reportedly hit him right in the middle of the top of his head but hurting no one else.

This caused comments to be made by Bio’s opponents that it was God Almighty who sent the stone down to so precisely hit Bio; as a message that God was not happy with his candidacy. Bio’s mystery disappearance of his face from his Voter Card has already started generating similar comments when news broke last night.