By Ralph Sesay
Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai, a Human Rights Activist, Barrister and Solicitor and a renowned civil society member in Sierra Leone has proved critics and APC officials who branded him as SLPP during the last ten years wrong.
The erudite lawyer and civil society activist came to the limelight towards the end of the SLPP rule in 2006 -2007 when he launched the campaign to get the government of Sierra Leone to pass a Freedom of Information Act into Law. Saffa Abdulai presented a number of arguments including the fact that the passing of such a law would not even require us to have an Anti-Corruption Law. He worked very hard and the campaign saw him lobbying parliamentarians, engaging students at various universities to get them to better understand the concept.
Just like the 1965 Public Order Act campaign by SLAJ which was equally calling for the expunging of Part 5 of the Criminal Seditious libel Law, Saffa was not able to get the Tejan Kabbah Government to pass the FOI Law even when the late President got the parliament at the time to pass the three Gender Acts into law at their last sitting.
At least he got the APC to pass the FOI Act into law. Many have attributed the passage to pressure from the United States Government. The United States many believed had presented the passing of the FOI Law as a key condition for the country to qualify for the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact.
The young man is also noted for criticizing the APC government for sacking a sitting Vice-President while also undertaking many Pro-Bono services in defence of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party. He also represented Mohamed Kamarainbah in his alleged unlawful possession of weapons.
In the new administration of President Bio we have also seen the firebrand lawyer criticizing the Government for a number of actions including the issue of whether the President had the right to convene parliament.
Quite recently, he has condemned the order by the Police and the government to restrict the freedom of movement of past officials of the APC just because they had served in a government that has been accused of rampant corruption by a Governance Transition Team.
We are saluting Saffa’s courage and resolve especially when some of his colleagues in civil society are calling for the freezing of the accounts of all past officials and also supporting Police actions to call for the surrender of their passports even when the commission that is to try them is still to be set up .
He and his organization have referred to this as the normal Police Exuberance and that it is totally wrong and uncalled for. Emmanuel Abdulai acknowledged the fact that those mentioned in the report could be prevented by the Police from leaving the country but to state that all those who served in the regime should be prevented from travelling is wrong.
He further noted that what is more annoying was the fact that the Police have even ordered the surrender of the passports even when cabinet was yet to sanction the recommendations of the report.
He bashed the Police leadership for their continued issuance of unconstitutional orders.
This move is commendable in a civil society community that is almost losing the confidence of the people.