Within the context of the rule of law here in Sierra Leone, democratic accountability and electoral justice share one thing in common: putting an end to impunity in the state governance system and electoral processes.
President Julius Maada stands for democratic accountability to stifle corruption in public institutions despite few criticisms while the opposition leader, Dr. Samura Kamara goes in for electoral justice to end election malpractices in Sierra Leone’s electoral system to strengthen the country’s fledgling democracy.
Ahead of March, 2018 elections, then opposition leader now President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio promised to block financial leakages by waging war against corruption and that the money would be used for the benefit of all and sundry.
While celebrating his victory in early April, 2018, the President assured the people of Sierra Leone and international community that he would set up judge-led commissions of inquiry to look into alleged financial irregularities in the past APC (All People’s Congress) government referred to as “a criminal racketeering enterprise” by a GTT (Governance Transition Team) report sanctioned by the government.
In his democratic accountability project, President Bio sought support from the people of Sierra Leone and the international community so that he can end corruption in a country that is still behind other nations in the development strides.
Bio’s call was readily answered by the international community which provided the much-needed funds to fund the operations of the defunct Commissions of Inquiry (CoI) with UK taking the lead.
It is reported that Britain released huge amounts of money to support the commissions carry out their work although money recouped at the end of the probe failed to match with expenditure.
The international community became deeply interested in the defunct commissions when President Bio assured them that he would run his government without foreign aid and pay salaries and wages without overdraft if he is supported in anti-corruption campaign.
Few Months after President Bio was sworn in, CoI’s statutory instruments were laid before law makers for work to start, a move that prompted debates in the well.
The arguments centered on what opposition parliamentarians called the erroneous nature of the legal instruments as well as the absence of rules of evidence to regulate the proceedings of the commissions of inquiry as laid down by section 150 Act No. 6 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991. The Constitution states that “…The Rules of Court Committee shall, by constitutional instruments, make rules regulating the practice and procedure of all commissions of inquiry.”
As the judges were about to sit, questions about whether the rules governing high court proceedings should be applied to the commissions of inquiry were raised by legal practitioners.
But, another thorny issue hinged on senior civil servants appearing before the commissions to account for their role in handling public money, and the debates never end. However, in Parliament,
Most of the votes went in favour of APC, a party bitterly opposed not to the setting up of the commissions of inquiry but the alleged “flawed procedures” in bringing to life the tribunals. However, APC failed to secure the two-third majority votes to block the formation of the investigative bodies owing mainly to the absence of APC parliamentarians owing to a court action.
At the time the debates were ongoing in the legislative house, about 16 APC members of Parliament were restrained from taking part in the proceedings following petitions filed by SLPP members.
Despite heavy criticisms of the CoI’s, they were speedily set up after they were launched by President Julius Maada Bio in January 2019 with complex legal questions surrounding the commissions of inquiry left unanswered.
With CoI’s europhoria renting the air, President Bio appealed to all Sierra Leoneans to cooperate with the commissions for a better Sierra Leone and also warned persons of interest to comply with the commissions’ orders or “face the full force of the law.”
The CoI started operation three days after their launching, and the question of their legality also came up during the proceedings. One of the lead defence counsels at the commissions, Ady Macauley told this press in an interview that matters relating to the illegality of the constitutional instruments have been filed to the Supreme Court for determination, but no judge was empanelled to look into them, and the doubt remained on to the time the findings and recommendations were handed over to the government for implementation. Receiving the documents detailing the findings and recommendations from the commissions, President Bio declared that: “Government has carefully looked at the reports of the commissions and the recommendations. The White Paper documents the recommendations government has accepted in the interest of the people of Sierra Leone. Unlike other commissions, citizens are assured that his government will implement fully all recommendations to the letter. I repeat, government will implement all recommendations to the letter.” Writing on the same page with President Bio, Vice President, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh also alerted the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) to be ready to look into other aspects that have criminal implications. He said: “This is not the last of investigations into corruption by former leaders. The ACC and other law enforcement agencies are mandated to investigate issues that the commissions of inquiry did not have sufficient time to investigate. Arrests, investigations and prosecutions for corruption will continue as long as they are permissible in the laws of the country.” Consequent on the publication of the White Papers, such tough actions as confiscation of houses, sale or auction of property, arrest and imprisonment among others have been taken against officials of the past APC government especially those who failed to support President Bio in his 2028 agenda with the dead not spared.
Posthumous actions were initiated against late Education Minister and NaTCA (National Telecommunication Authority) boss, Minkailu Mansaray and Momoh Konteh respectively. Relatives of the late Minister were driven out of their house in Freetown by armed police personnel and cordoned off owing to allegations that he had embezzled thousands of dollars while he was Minister.
Like the late Minister, the deceased Momoh Konteh’s relatives were also similarly asked out of their home and armed personnel deployed at the building.
Several APC politicians have faced constant arrest and detention owing to corruption charges slammed against them.
APC’s former Vice President and the Mines Minister, Victor Bockarie Foh and Minkailu Mansaray respectively were brought before a high court in Freetown for alleged embezzlement of funds meant for Hajj (Pilgrimage to Mecca). For months, they were in court but went off the hook and later threw their weight behind the ruling party which was fighting for a second term.
As if it was a tie, Victor Foh was with Bio wherever he went to spread goodwill messages for the SLPP which he once bitterly opposed when he was an APC stalwart.
Clad in SLPP T-shirt with Bio’s portrait, Foh was bold to tag his former party, the APC as a cabal of thieves and killers.
For Minkailu, he never crossed over to SLPP but appears to be doing Bio’s bidding in the APC as he fails to stand with the opposition leader, Samura Kamara to take back what many call a stolen victory from the hands of SLPP.
Some prominent APC politicians including former President Ernest Bai Koroma also fell in ACC’s net for corruption and money laundering offences. For several months, the ACC was after the former President for arrest and detention not until the sub-regional bloc, ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) intervened to preserve the country’s peace and stability.
Koroma is now in Nigeria seeking asylum with no one knowing when he would return. As if the chase was not enough, ex-Minister of Youth Affairs, Bai Mahmoud Bangura was also roped in for corruption and asked to pay or jailed, and without hesitation, he chose to give back what he took from the state coffers. The list is still endless as former NRA (National Revenue Authority) Commissioner-General, Haja Kallah Kamara was also arrested and detained at the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) headquarters in Freetown for misappropriation of public funds and later freed only after paying the amount she allegedly stole from government.
These actions were the result of the commissions of inquiry whose legality has been questioned by seasoned lawyers.
On the other hand, SLPP politicians stand to face one of the worst cases of electoral justice after five years in governance. If understood properly, electoral justice is a move to establish the real winner of the June 24, 2023 election and to hold accountable those who play significant role in stealing the people’s mandate with the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Konneh as the principal offender. His conspirators who allegedly conspire to steal the people’s votes also will be arraigned to deter would-be offenders.
An experienced legal practitioner who spoke to this press linked Konneh’s alleged rigging to a coup against the state since sovereignty belongs to the people of Sierra Leone as laid down by the Constitution, the country’s highest law.
Section 5 of the constitution states that: “Sovereignty belongs to the people of Sierra Leone from whom government, through this Constitution, derives its powers, legitimacy and authority.”
The Public Elections Act, 2022 also will be used in the court as it contains offences for which one could be punished for any infraction.
Besides, Sierra Leone is a signatory to international conventions that protect democracy and good governance, and they have force of law or binding power under which politicians said to have rigged the June electoral process could be tried.
Since Resolution-4 of the Peace Communiqué between government and APC is about human rights abuses in the form of unlawful detention, politically motivated trials, torture, extra-judicial executions, mistreatment and disappearances of prisoners, sexual violence and disenfranchisement, such international laws as the International Covenant on civil and Political Rights and the international Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966 as well as the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, 1981 alongside the country’s criminal laws would be used to hold accountable those who allegedly stole the people’s votes.
Seen as a matter that deserves utmost seriousness, local and foreign judges have reportedly been chosen and the flame of justice lit at the premises of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone sending a compelling message that justice is at hand. Besides, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in Netherlands, Karim Kahn had repeatedly met with President Bio on the need to bring justice to the people of Sierra Leone.
In one of their meetings in New York after a UN summit, the ICC prosecutor solicited cooperation from the Sierra Leonean President to ensure that a hybrid court is set up in Sierra Leone as he maintains that the lives of people of the global South, Africa and Latin America matter the same way as the lives of people anywhere in the world. Kahn also emphasized that the people of Freetown, Lungi and other parts upcountry wanted to see justice, and his recent visit to Freetown where he met with Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh was the latest, and the next could be action. Quite apart from human rights abuses, SLPP politicians also stand the risk of corruption trials when power changes hands with former Chief Minister, David Francis standing out.
Professor Francis, according to Africanist Press publications, allegedly misappropriated billions of Leones of state money in hiring a public relations firm to do image laundering abroad for SLPP and the procurement of furniture for his office.
What about the alleged misuse of millions of US dollars meant for the Free Quality Education launched by President Bio as a flagship project of his government for which the current Chief Minister, David Moinina Sengeh would have to answer questions.
What about the millions of US dollars offered to the Office of First Lady to support the anti-sexual violence campaign, the ‘HANDS OFF OUR GIRLS’ for which officials in the Office of First Lady would be interrogated in the not-too-distant future?
What about the embezzlement of dozens of bags of rice donated by the Chinese government to the school feeding programme for which then Minister of Basic and Senior School Education would have to respond to ACC queries. The corruption burden brought about by the pack of audit reports will be too heavy to bear as the current administration has been sweeping them under the carpet.
Despite the long delay, electoral justice is sure to come the same way democratic accountability comes. But, and the but part of it while democratic accountability goes after only APC politicians, electoral justice would rope in SLPP and APC politicians who allegedly collude to derail democracy in Sierra Leone.