FREETOWN, May 26: Sierra leone's new strongman identified himself as major Jolly Paul Koroma on national radio yesterday, the day soldiers there seized power, ousting the elected regime of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Until his announcement, Major Koroma, a common name in Sierra Leone, was unknown to most in the country, where a curfew was imposed earlier yesterday.

Koroma announced himself as head of state the West African country's fifth in as many years and chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), the name given to the group of soldiers that seized power early yesterday.

``As custodians of state security and defenders of the Constitution, we decided to overthrow the government of the SLPP (Sierra Leone People's Party, led by Ahmad Tejan Kabbah) because of its failure to consolidate the gains purported to have been achieved by the brokers of peace in our mother land,'' Koroma said in his broadcast, without elaborating.

He said the ``military feared the disintegration of Sierra Leone into factional conflicts''.

He accused Kabbah's Government of ``nurturing sectional and tribal conflict''.

The new leader also criticised what he called ``the inability of army commanders to convey to the head of state the welfare problems and other administrative constraints within the armed forces''.

He repeated his earlier warnings for all cabinet ministers and senior officers of the Army and police to report to Defence headquarters.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary General Koffi Annan has expressed ``distress'' over the coup against the civilian government in Sierra Leone, a UN spokesman said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.