{"id":36997,"date":"2026-06-13T08:06:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T06:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36997"},"modified":"2026-06-13T08:06:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T06:06:05","slug":"london-council-repossesses-flat-linked-to-sierra-leones-first-lady","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/london-council-repossesses-flat-linked-to-sierra-leones-first-lady\/","title":{"rendered":"London Council repossesses flat linked to Sierra Leone&#8217;s First Lady \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Southwark Council has confirmed it has taken possession of a local council property linked to Sierra Leone&#8217;s First Lady, Fatima Bio, following a year-long investigation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The repossession comes just weeks after the First Lady defended retaining the south London flat during an interview with <em>BBC<\/em> Global Women. In that interview, she discussed escaping a proposed child marriage, seeking asylum in Britain, and her rise to prominence in Sierra Leone, while also addressing her decision to keep the council property.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Her comments drew intense public scrutiny in both the United Kingdom and Sierra Leone, leading to renewed questions over the status of the flat. Facing a housing waiting list of more than 18 000 people, Southwark Council stated that the property has now been repossessed and will soon be allocated to individuals with a legitimate housing need.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":36999,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-36997","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Southwark Council has confirmed it has taken possession of a local council property linked to Sierra Leone's First Lady","published_date":"2026-06-13 08:01:00","news_description":"Southwark Council has confirmed it has taken possession of a local council property linked to Sierra Leone's First Lady","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36998,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36997\/revisions\/36998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}