Hours after walking free from Bo Correctional Centre, the musician formerly known as Sierra Leone’s Peace Ambassador has penned a formal letter to State House thanking the President, accepting his replacement, and congratulating Shady Baby by name.
Twenty-four hours can change everything in Sierra Leone’s public life. On Tuesday, April 29, Alhaji Amadu Bah, known across the country as LAJ or King Boss La walked out of the Bo Male Correctional Centre on bail after more than a month in custody. By Thursday May 1, he had put pen to paper in a letter addressed directly to His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio at State House, Freetown a letter that reads not as a complaint or a protest, but as a formal and dignified farewell.
The letter, dated May 1, 2026, and signed in LAJ’s full name, is a Letter of Appreciation. In it, the former peace ambassador thanks President Bio for what he describes as “the incredible honor of being appointed as the first Peace Ambassador of Sierra Leone” and explicitly congratulates his successor, Mr. Abu Bakar S. Turay, by name.
The tone LAJ strikes is one of genuine gratitude rather than grievance. He describes the appointment as “a demonstration of your unwavering commitment to fostering peace, unity, and youth empowerment within our beloved nation,” and reflects on his time in the role as “an enriching and inspiring journey” that gave him “a unique opportunity to contribute meaningfully to peacebuilding initiatives and to promote the core values that bind us as Sierra Leoneans.”
Crucially, he does not contest his removal. He does not reference his arrest, his time in custody, the Bo Shopping Plaza incident, or the criminal charges that remain active against him. Instead, he writes: “I am deeply appreciative of your trust and confidence in my abilities. Rest assured, I remain committed to supporting the ongoing efforts toward national cohesion and harmony, and I am eager to continue working towards a more peaceful Sierra Leone in whatever capacity I can serve.”
The closing paragraph is the one that will draw the most attention. LAJ writes, “I also wish to extend my sincere congratulations to Mr. Abu Bakar S. Turay on his recent appointment as the new Peace Ambassador. I am confident that his devotion and assurance will significantly contribute to our collective efforts to foster lasting peace across the country.”
It is a public handover from musician to musician, one chapter closing as another opens conducted not on social media but in the formal language of a letter to the presidency.
The 72 hours that produced this letter are among the most compressed and consequential in recent Sierra Leonean entertainment and political history. LAJ was granted bail on April 29. On April 30, State House signed the appointment of Shady Baby real name Abubakarr S. Turay as the new Peace Ambassador, alongside two other government appointments in the same public notice. By May 1, LAJ had written to the president acknowledging both the end of his tenure and the legitimacy of his successor.
The speed of the institutional response and the speed of LAJ’s own written response signals something important. The government moved to fill the vacancy before LAJ was even formally free, a sequence that left no ambiguity about where things stood. LAJ, for his part, appears to have read that signal clearly and responded with a composure that many observers would not have predicted from a man who spent over a month in a correctional centre in Bo.
LAJ’s criminal case has not gone away. He was released on bail, not acquitted and Magistrate Samuel James Brima has already ruled that an apology to Mayor Thomas Karimu Baio does not override the judicial process. The charges under the Cyber Security and Crime Act and the Public Order Act remain active, and a hearing date is pending.
But the letter suggests that LAJ is making a calculated choice about how to navigate the next phase of his public life — with dignity, without confrontation, and with his eye on the longer arc of a career that predates the Peace Ambassador title and will, in all likelihood, outlast this chapter of it.
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For Shady Baby, who now formally holds the title LAJ once carried, the letter is something of a gift: a clean, public, and gracious transfer of a role that has been the subject of considerable national debate. The new peace ambassador begins his tenure with his predecessor’s blessing in writing and the President’s seal behind him.
