Orange-SL has dismissed a front page story in the Africa24 newspaper of Thursday April 25, 2024 with the banner headline ‘Orange dupes subscriber NLe 79,000’.
The allegation against the company was made by Hon. Sarty Benya who is representing Kailahun district.
The MP pointed out that sometimes in February, 2023, he sent someone to carry out a transaction with the sum of NLe 79,000 at Orange SL office in Kenema and this person was eventually duped.
Hon. Benya made this disclosure on Wednesday 24th April, 2024 during an engagement held by the Committee on Information and Communication with Orange SL at the New Administrative Building in Parliament.
The Committee’s chairman, Hon. Boston Munda, immediately interjected Hon. Benya’s claim saying that Orange Money and Orange-SL which have been operating in Sierra Leone are two different entities.
However, Hon. Munda admonished Hon. Benya to reserve his statement or make a formal complaint to Orange Money office instead of him wrongly referring to Orange SL. Hon Munda advised the lawmaker to make the complaint when the Committee would be inviting the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Orange Money who was not present during the first hearing to respond to such allegations.
He elaborated that Orange SL is the umbrella entity which deals with phone calls and data network; whilst Orange Money is the mobile money transfer of the company which was only launched few years back.
A credible source at Orange-SL disclosed to this medium that Orange, as a popular brand name in Sierra Leone, would delve into the allegations made by Hon. Benya to ascertain the credibility of his claims.
Our source added that Orange would like to appeal to Hon. Benya to produce substantial evidence and records of the said transaction that transpired at the Orange Money office in Kenema in February 2023; so that the institution can easily investigate the allegation better.
However, this medium was unable to contact Hon. Benya to further shed more light into the alleged transaction.
The Management of the Africa24 newspaper, therefore, wishes to apologize to Orange Sierra Leone for publishing the article going with the title: “Orange dupes Subscriber NLe79 000”.
We also note that the article in question does not mean Orange Sierra Leone Company. Thus, in the first previous publication, we clearly mentioned Orange Money in the newspaper published on April 25,2024.
The newspaper accurately followed what was advised by the erudite Honourable Member of Parlaiment, Hon. Boston Munda.
On the whole, after engaging the Committee chairman Hon. Munda at the New Administrative Building in Parliament, and having had fruitful disccussions, we are unreservedly tendering our apologies and we are deeply sorry for any inconvenience this article might have caused to Orange company and its subscribers.
MANAGEMENT