TEJAN AHMED ISRAEL JAH Esq

OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE

By Subsection (2) of Section 146 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone Act No. 6 of 1991, the Office of the Ombudsman was established to investigate any action taken or omitted to be taken by or on behalf of:-

(a) Any Department or Ministry of Government;

(b) Any statutory corporation or institutions of higher learning or education, set up entirely or partly out of public funds;

(c) Any member of the public service being an action taken or omitted to be taken in the exercise of the administrative functions of that department, ministry, statutory corporation, institutions or person.

It is to give effect to the aforementioned constitutional provisions that the Office of the Ombudsman was created by virtue of the Ombudsman’s Act No. 2 of 1997.

His Excellency the President, Rtd. Brig. Dr. Julius Maada Bio, has appointed Tejan Ahmed Israel Jah, Esq. as the new Ombudsman of the Republic of Sierra Leone.

Until his appointment Mr. Jah was the Acting Director of Legal Affairs and Board Secretariat at the National Social Security and Insurance Trust, (NASSIT). He attended the Albert Academy Secondary School. Tejan Ahmed Israel Jah is a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of Sierra Leone. He is a graduate from Fourah Bay College and holds an LLB Honors Degree, an Executive Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the Institute of Public Administration and Management, University of Sierra Leone, an utter Barrister from the Sierra Leone Law School and an LLM from the University of Salford in UK.

He started his career as a lawyer in the Law Firm of Shears Moses and Co. and then proceeded to the Marcus Jones & Co. Law Firm.  He later on served as a Magistrate in the Sierra Leone Judiciary. He served as Legal officer at the Right to Access Information Commission and also Legal Advisor and Corporate Secretary at the Electricity and Distribution Authority (EDSA).

Whilst in private practice, he worked inter alia as Duty/ defence counsel for Advocaid and Defence for Children International - DCI- SL, NGOs that provide legal services including court representations for indigent women, girls and children/juveniles in contact or conflict with the law, respectively.

He is a member of the Sierra Leone Bar Association and he has been elected on numerous occasions as one of its directors in the capacities as Assistant General Secretary and Publicity Secretary. He was recently elected by the membership of the Sierra Leone Bar Association as a council member on the General Legal Council (GLC), the body that regulates the Legal Profession in the Country. He has been appointed as a Notary Public.