As the Tripartite Committee sets to release its findings and recommendations on the June 24, 2023 election, grassroot members of the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) have warned their leaders against going into compromise with the SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party)-led government.
The only compromise the grassroot is curious about is accepting and implementing the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee.
It was recently alleged that top APC officials had received financial gains from the SLPP camp so that President Julius Maada Bio could successfully go through his second term despite threats of widespread abuses, killings and terror campaign waged at the outset. The APC officials could be reached for their own side of the story and are reticent about the allegations.
Several grassroot members who spoke to this press on condition of anonymity said it was about time to chase the APC officials who have sold them off to the PAOPA regime. If the grassroot threats become a real, it could be a big win for President who, many say, has succeeded in tearing APC apart. Instead of going after ECSL, the grassroot would now target their officials to give them their victory.
Ibrahim Bangura (not his real name), a resident in Calaba Town in Eastern Freetown told Nightwatch Press that they had exercised patience and restraint for too long after the election results were announced by the election authorities, but is now time to clean the system.
The struggle to retrieve stolen votes, he said, had not yielded any result after a long struggle leaving many to suspect that nothing would come out of the Tripartite Committee as endless allegations of sell-out derail the fight.
The situation, according to Bangura, has made him lose hope, but those responsible should pay a high price.
“For too long, we the grassroot have suffered as we acted blindly by embarking on streets protests against the government since there is no communication between us and the party leaders. The only option now is to take on leaders of the party to put them into action,” Bangura Threatened as he hoped that such step would expose the truth.
Several grassroot members have lost their lives during protest called by those from the diaspora. The would readily answer the call for demonstration since they needed political change in Sierra Leone.
Waves of protest in August, 2022 and September, 2023 are clear shows and scenes of grassroot power in the country’s body politic.
Another APC member who withholds his name issued similar warning that as he said “Soon all the problems in the APC will come to an end as the trouble causers would be subdued.” He went on to state that the grassroot were in the majority while the leaders were in the minority and should not be allowed to hold the party to ransom for their selfish gains. “The part should move on now,” he yelled.
Others have also threatened to protest against their leaders if the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee fail them especially after Dr Kaifala Marrah was accused of colluding with the chairman of the party to pour cold water on the election probe.
Marrah was said to have visited the APC Chairman’s residence at night and the outcome of the discussion still remains a closely guarded secret.
Reliable sources within APC intimated this press that the discussion with the party’s chairman was to press for reforms and not to recommend an APC victory or another election in Sierra Leone to ensure that Samura Kamara is booted out of the race, but it could be a hard nut to crack.
The Tripartite is currently Sierra Leoneans’ last hope and Samura Kamara is ultimately the people’s choice, and any attempt to block his presidency will be fiercely and robustly resisted by the voters.
Warning of the APC leaders came days after allegations of a sell-out to SLPP were made against executive officials of the party particularly the Chairman, Minkailu Mansaray and the Publicity Secretary, Sidi Yayah Tunis. The allegations however became watertight when Mr Mansaray recently announced that there would be no other election until 2026 just two years to the actual date.
Thousands of grassroot members within and outside Sierra Leone are not happy with his untimely decalaration as it serves as an obstacle to the on-going election audit.
Almost invariably, Tunis’s loyalty to the party has been seriously questioned by grassroot members owing to his recent utterances against a party which he is under oath to defend anywhere, anytime.
The grassroot are angry than ever before and they show their anger last Tuesday at APC headquarters where officials were manhandled. The Chairman and the Publicity Secretary came under serious attacks and the two seemed to have lost control of the grassroot and seemed no longer safe.
Bad blood is ensuing within the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) as grassroot members do not see eye to eye with executive officials over issues that affect the party.
The leaders and ordinary members hold different views about what should be the party’s response to the findings and recommendations of the Tripartite Committee which many suspect will be a disfavour to APC as shown by the no rerun mantra disseminated by President Julius Maada Bio and his ministers.
President Bio recently assured his supporters in the South-East regions that there would be no other election until 2028 and strongly warned so-called APC political big guns to stop misleading their people that a rerun is coming when it is not coming.
For the PAOPAs, such misinformation is a threat to peace and Bio threatened to come down hard on anyone who attempted to undermine the country’s peace and security.
On Several occasions, the President also urged APC’s leader and flag-bearer, Samura Kamara to say the truth to his people as the June election is over.
Despite Bio’s threats, Kamara, according to the grassroot, and his team have not done enough to assure the people that APC’s victory will be reclaimed in spite of assurances during campaigns that their votes would be protected.
On the eve of the June 24, 2023 election, the people of Sierra Leone intensified the ‘NO DATA NO ELECTION’ campaign, it was Samura Kamara who urged the people to go to the polls after vowing to secure the votes.
Upon Samura’s call, the people went out and voted in favour of the APC to ensure that PAOPA rule came to an end as that is the only means at their disposal.
The people’s aspirations however were rendered futile after Bio was declared winner of the election on June 27, 2023 and sworn in on the same day by ex-Chief Justice, Babatunde Edwards.
The people of Sierra Leone as well as the international community expected the party to go into action as the protection of votes ought to have started from that point. However, as a way of cool protest, APC’s elected officials (parliamentarians, mayors, chairmen and councillors) refused to take the oath of office saying they would not work with what they called “an illegitimate government.” But, they later end their non-participation following the signing of a communiqué by the ruling party, SLPP and the opposition APC, a peace deal that was facilitated by the Commonwealth, African Union and ECOWAS.
The peace agreement places obligations on government to release political prisoners, discontinue politically motivated court cases, resettle victims of political violence and pay a three-month backlog to APC parliamentarians as a way of consolidation of democracy, peace and national cohesion.
As an open show of defiance, government released no political prisoner, politically motivated trials against APC politicians still continue, no victim of political violence has been resettled and no backlog paid to any APC law maker.
The neglect bounces back to the APC executive especially, the chief negotiator, Samura Kamara who bears the onus to ensure that their demands are met and they ought to have been met before signing the communiqué.
As long as President Bio continues to have his way through, the lives of APC officials are on the knife edge as the grassroot would go after them if they fail to bring back their votes.
The APC grassroot have also similarly warned members of the diplomatic community in Sierra Leone not to take sides with the Bio regime who many see as one that is holding and exercising a “stolen mandate.” Sierra Leone, according to the voters, will be relegated to a “failed state” if Bio gets his way with the electoral theft.
At the moment, the most controversial Tripartite Committee is about to round up its work, and the recommendations will be submitted to the President with many saying it will favour APC, but it’s a wait-and-see affair.