The SLPP regime has come under pressure as the Tripartite Committee is about to release its findings and recommendations after six months of election probe.
Launched in November, last year, the Tripartite Committee is mandated to look into alleged irregularities of June 24, 2023 and submit report to the government for appropriate action. The report, according to the agreement, should contain findings and recommendations that will guarantee all elections to be free, fair and credible to avoid violence and thuggery in politics.
Government, according to political commentators, is under obligation to implement the findings and recommendations that emanate from the investigation.
As the law demands, the President is the only person to whom the report should be submitted, and must be on the seat to perform such an all-important function.
Several news reports have shown that President Julius Maada Bio has been admonished not to travel out of the country until the report has been submitted to him.
ECOMOG (ECOWAS Monitoring Group) troops are said to have landed here to provide security for the people of Sierra Leone since violence may be incited by those who might be aggrieved by the findings and recommendations of the Tripartite Committee.
It could be the people themselves who might spontaneously go on the rampage or the PAOPA regime using local security forces against the people in a situation where the recommendations do not favour them.
News channels who share their findings with Nightwatch press reported that the foreign troops would leave the country after the recommendations would have been implemented.
The pressure being mounted on the President is not unconnected to his utterances that whittle down the importance of the Tripartite Committee in recent times.
A video that has gone viral on various social media platforms portrayed Bio questioning the relevance of the Tripartite Committee to the election of June 24, 2023.
“What Tripartite means to his government,” Bio rhetorically asked as ecstatic SLPP supporters laughed and clapped while they waited and watched.
Tripartite or no Tripartite, Bio says, his government would continue and that his supporters should go to bed and sleep.
As if taking the cue from President Bio, SLPP members and supporters say the Tripartite Committee is not a court and thus lacks the power to overturn the elections.
The incessant questions about the Tripartite Committee also raised great doubt about government’s commitment to the election investigation and implementation of the outcome and recommendations.
On the other hand, other SLPP members and supporters have suspected their party leader of playing pranks with them as revelations at the Tripartite Committee showed that the results have come out and all documents signed for the implementation of the recommendations.
The history of wits and tricks President Bio used to deceive members of the NPRC (National Provisional Ruling Council) in 1996 is still kept alive by those who witnessed history firsthand.
While then military Head of State was secretly signing documents to hand over power to civilian authorities, the soldiers were being brainwashed into believing that the Peace-before-election notion would be actualised. The army were however taken aback when Bio handed over power to President Ahmed Tejan Kabba, and it was too late for them to act.
A similar period is here again as he is assuring his party members that he does countenance the Tripartite Committee while reliable sources said that all documents had been signed for the announcement of the findings which could not be in favour of government.
As the Tripartite Committee set to release the findings and recommendations, so the people of Sierra Leone preparing to take to the streets to restore their political victory at all cost.
The threats of protest made, according to many of the supporters, are to take back control of their future.
The people have always threatened to take to the streets if the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee do not favour them.
Majority of the people of Sierra Leone have demanded that either a rerun or fresh election is recommended or the opposition leader, Dr Samura Kamara declared President of Sierra Leone.
As Bio’s main challenger, Kamara is said to have won the June 24, 2023 election, but allegedly stolen by the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Kenewui Konneh.
Letters seen by this press show that the police have been notified of a protest by Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora known as People’s Power In Politics (PPP). “We give notice that contingent upon the report by the committee set up following the Agreement for national unity signed last year between the Government of Sierra Leone and the All People’s Congress (APC) with the international community also as party, we will organise, coordinate and lead a nation-wide peaceful protest against electoral corruption and cover-up of the 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections by the authorities in Freetown,” a portion of the letter reads.
The letter also stated that “in full view and public glare, the elections of 24th June, 2023 were corrupted, stolen or manipulated in favour of the Sierra Leone People’s Party and their presidential candidate, Julius Maada Bio.” It is alleged that the ECSL (Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone blatantly violated the electoral laws and the country’s constitution to achieve their rigging objective.
However, police have rejected any application for the people to take to the streets owing to visible threat to peace and security.
The police are fully aware of the unreliability of protesters to maintain the peace while protesting as clearly seen in the August, 2022 and September, 2023 protest in which close to 40 people were massacred including six police officers.
However, police denial to grant an approval to protest here in the capital city does not seem to change the protesters’ plan as they believed that the international community would come in only when people show determination to take back the electoral.
The election probe carried out by the Tripartite Committee also indicates that President Bio failed to make gains in the ballot box, but still holds on to power when time is up to take an exit.
President Bio, few days ago, was out of the country at a time he was needed to remain on the ground so that things could go the right way. The President was said to have visited South Korea on official trip, but his mission to the Asian country remains unexplained.
His absence from the country halted an ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) visit to Sierra Leone to assess the extent to which President Bio has complied with the resolutions of the October, 2023 communique.
Virtually, the PAOPA regime has done little to implement resolutions critical to peace and national cohesion especially clause-4 which requires government to release all political prisoners, discontinue all politically motivated cases, resettle victims of political violence and pay backlog to APC’s elected officials for the three months to stay away from parliament and local councils.
According to the communiqué, the APC law makers and councillors are expected to end their boycott so that the business of state governance could continue. APC has complied with their own part of the agreement while the ruling party has reneged on their own part.
Government has failed to release the prisoners as stipulated by the communiqué and political cases also go on in the courts unabated, victims of political violence still languish in the wilderness and no APC parliamentarian and councillor has received their backlog.
With the failure to implement the resolution, it could also be safe to argue that Bio may also trample on the findings and recommendations of the Tripartite Committee as coming events cast their shadows.
But, the people have strong hope that local and international pressure could compel him to comply with the recommendations of the Tripartite so that peace could be preferred to horror.