To set the record straight Sierra Leone’s Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh has refuted statements made by certain politicians that there is presently palaver in Sierra Leone. The Vice President maintained that there is no palaver in the country, but revealed that the reality in Sierra Leone is that the Sierra Leone Peoples Party won the 2018 Presidential election and is ruling the country but the opposition is behaving otherwise. He therefore said that the SLPP should be allowed to rule the country. He made the statement while addressing stakeholders in Port Loko City at the Presidential Villa on the 4th May, 2019. Dr. Jalloh recalled that late President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah conducted the 2007 Presidential election that was won by the then opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) Party whilst the then ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party lost the election. He added that the SLPP accepted the defeat and allowed the APC to govern the country with peace without jumping on the street to fight. “If APC accept defeat, there will be no problem. But there is nothing like palaver or tension in the country, people are manufacturing palaver”, he emphasized.
The Honourable Vice President informed the gathering of the New Direction Government’s determination to move the country forward with better development, but cautioned that the Government will not hesitate to deal with anyone who flouts law and order. He furthered that no one is above the law of Sierra Leone; therefore, anybody who disturb public peace will be dealt with accordingly whether you are present or past official. He called on opposition parties especially the main opposition APC to respect the law, to allow peace, and to obey law and order in the country. “The SLPP led Administration is ready to develop and move the country to a better place at the Global stage. ‘We will not allow anybody to divert our attention from the New Direction Plan which is in implementation” he re-echoed.
The Vice President expressed dismay at people calling for justice, he explained justice as the act of people speaking truth to perpetrators of violence and hooliganism. He further explained that justice is the art of stakeholders condemning act of violence by politicians in power who terrorized their own people just because they are opposition supporters. He referenced the beaten with broken legs of then opposition SLPP loyalists by hoodlums sent by the then former Minister of Works Alhaji Kemoh Sesay, and the burning down of houses of the opposition SLPP supporters including the house and private school of the present Deputy Minister of Basic and Secondary Education Mrs. Emile Gogra in Port Loko District by APC thugs of Kemoh Sesay. Vice President Jalloh in no nonsense terms expressed his disappointment at religious leaders and statesmen/stakeholders in the country especially in Port Loko District for not condemning the brutal act that was perpetrated by the APC in Port Loko District and the country in general.
Dr. Jalloh encouraged former President Ernest Bai Koroma to act as a Statesman. He noted that the Government of President Julius Maada Bio fully recognizes former President Koroma as a Statesman; therefore, he is expected to behave in such a manner. Sierra Leone, Vice President Jalloh reiterated, has peace and there is no conflict, the only conflict he told the people is APC refusal to accept defeat and give peace a chance.
He informed the people that Port Loko has only one party, which is the Port Loko Peoples Party. The Vice President encouraged his kinsmen to put the interest of the district first and above political party interest for the growth and development of the district. He also appealed to SLPP supporters to accept Bai Bureh Warriors and help contribute to the growth of the team for the sake of peace and development in the district whether the present management of the team is APC or not, especially now he has been given the status of patron member. He assured the people of his continued support to the district.
The country’s foremost petroleum company, the National Petroleum –Sierra Leone Limited continues to win the minds and hearts of many Sierra Leoneans countrywide due to its efficient and effective service delivery. Within the realm of making available qualitative petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, kerosene as well as lubricants one of which is Castrol oil, then it is indisputable that within that area none is equal to NP-SL as it is doing exceptionally well. Surely, one remarkable attribute which the company possesses is it always ensures that all its products are always timely available to customers. “Unlike certain petroleum companies where, from time to time, one could be told at a particular filling station that fuel is not available, for NP it is the complete opposite as one will always access them without scratching the head,” Mohamed Turay, a commercial taxi driver who has been driving for over ten years lauded the company underscoring such is all the more reason why it has a huge number of customers in different parts of the country.
When cognisance is really taken of giving its esteemed cherished customers utmost satisfaction then NP has and still continues to be rated as very good in that. As a matter of fact one of the core values of the company borders on customer satisfaction which is uppermost in the minds of its Management. This is taken seriously, mindful of the fact that the company is there to provide optimal service delivery which is the why customers are held in very high esteem.
“We want to always give our customers the best because we believe they deserve it at all times and we will never renege in our resolve,” one of the company’s Managers intimated with commitment.
A cross section of Sierra Leoneans recently asked in interviews conducted in various parts of the country highly commended NP for its readiness and willingness to enter into customer-friendly negotiations based on business agreements. A private dealer maintained, “I have entered into various business deals with NP based on trust and the Management has never being hesitant to loan me fuel which I have never failed to pay in return timely.” NP has been doing the same with corporate institutions, MDAs and other entities.
As a country we are battling with the issue of unemployment but with business entities like NP, through expanding their networks, are providing jobs, from time to time, to ambitious deserving Sierra Leoneans who were hitherto jobless. The company has been opening filling stations in different parts of the country over the years thereby creating job opportunities. It is offering satisfactory remunerations to its workers and giving some the opportunity to gain advanced training.
What is real is that NP is a hundred percent successful indigenous owned company with all its members of staff being Sierra Leoneans. The company epitomizes one that truly adheres to the Local Content Policy which is a sine qua non to overall national development. There is the realization and acceptance that we need to make use of local talents and skills which NP is following to the letter.
As the company continues to generate profits out of managerial prudence it is at the same time timely paying taxes to Government and it belongs within the bracket of Large Taxpayer to the National Revenue Authority (NRA). Again the company is strictly rolling out its Corporate Social Responsibility which has been benefiting many people.
Many have attested to the fact that as NP continues to win the minds and hearts of many around the country more goodies are being offered to the populace.
The National Coordinator of the Civil Rights Coalition ,Alphonso Manley, has commended the Government of Sierra Leone under the leadership of President Julius Maada Bio for putting more premium on education but also called on them to increase and pay the 100% fees to the West African Examination Council (WAEC) before the commencement of external examinations in order to have a proper conduct of those exams and effective monitoring of the National Primary School Exanimation (NPSE), Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECCE) and West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
He stated that the body charged with the responsibility of conducting external examinations within the West African Sub- Region, the West African Examination Council (WAEC) is conducting four Examinations, two National Examinations that is the National Primary School Exanimation and Basic Education Certificate Examination and two external Examinations which are the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination for school and private candidates.
He noted that WAEC also conducts Examinations on behalf of other Examination Boards that offers various courses.
“The institution has been in existence for over 6 decades and is accredited for excellence in conducting credible examinations as well as the issuance of certificates. However in recent times lamentably, examination malpractices have become embedded and are gradually turning into a culture in our educational institutions to an extent that WAEC as examining body is concern about the credibility of certificates issued out,” Manley underscored.
According to him, the menace, if not eradicated would eat into our educational system and seriously cause harm to the moral and intellectual development of young people saying there is therefore a dire need for strict measures to be implemented not only to curb the malaise but to put an end to it.
He described examination malpractice as a deliberate attempt to beat the system by wrong means contrary to the examination rules and regulations, which will put a candidate at an unfair advantage stressing how such is illegal and can be committed by a candidate single handedly or in collaboration with other examination authorities, like invigilators, supervisors, examiners, colleagues candidates or other persons in any of the examination stages.
The National Coordinator posited that exam malpractice can occur through leakage of examination question papers, bribe/influencing examination staffs and falsification of verified entries.
He also said it can be done through choice of invigilators, examination centers, smuggling of answer booklets in and out of the examination rooms, helping candidates, carrying offensive weapons, refusing to obey the orders of invigilators, and supervisory staffs ,creating disturbance, instigating other candidates and inscription of answers on bodily parts.
Manley suggested that in reducing this exam malpractice some security measures have been put in place saying the Council should be strict about Manual of Procedure for entering scripts, install CCTV cameras in security places in the WAEC offices with some being out of bounds to certain members of staff.
He said the home office of WAEC in Ghana should provide six staffs to help sort packaging of question papers and monitor the conduct of the exam in Sierra Leone. He maintained that question papers must be placed in bags that are highly secure, sealed and locked with coded padlocks. He furthered that dispatch of question papers to the provincial towns should be done daily and not before 2:00 am of the day of the examination.
This, he said, will ensure that no question paper sleeps in any depot to avoid occurrence of leakage.
At a press conference held at the Headquarters of one of Sierra Leone’s telecommunication companies, QCELL SL, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Jayamani Karthik expressed appreciation to the Government and people of Sierra Leone for the welcome given to them, adding that in barely 5 months, they have been able to make their presence felt across different parts of the country. Communication, he went on, is a necessity and in this regard the company is proud to announce that its tariff for calls to other networks in now Le400/min from Le697/min.
Speaking on the new tariff, the CEO said that an agreement was reached with NATCOM, the regulatory body of the Telecom Industry in the country, to reduce the tariff according to the directive of the Government. During the meetings held with the various mobile operators, it was agreed that tariff for calls per minute should be reduced to Le400 per minute. QCELL has taken the lead in this regard to implement the agreement. He stated that it is their conviction that tariffs for both data and calls should be as low as ever, so as to enable the ordinary Sierra Leonean to have access to the use of the industry at affordable prices.
Chief Operations Manager, Ebrima Jah, told journalists that they will soon expand their services to other parts of the country. It is their aim that every Sierra Leonean has access to telecommunication and be able to browse the internet at affordable prices. He reiterated their commitment to advocate for more reduction of the tariff in the near future. For only Le2,000, a subscriber can make a call to another QCELL subscriber and talk for a whole day. Its MiFi goes for only Le200,000 and comes with 6GB. QCELL, he maintained, is poised to enhance the digital revolution at rock bottom prices, thereby enable students and other groups to access the internet to do their research and work. This, he maintained ,will further support the Free Quality Education of the government as it will provide the enabling learning environment for both pupils and teachers to develop, which will eventually result in human capital development in the country. He called on all Sierra Leoneans to embrace QCELL for better telecommunication service.
Noting the increasing political tensions, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Sierra Leone calls on all political actors to engage in meaningful dialogue to reduce these tensions and maintain the focus on addressing the important development needs of the country and its people. The United Nations Resident Coordinator, continuing to stand ready to contribute to the facilitation of such dialogue, calls on all Sierra Leoneans to maintain peace and calm.
APC National Publicity Secretary Cornelius Deveaux and APC Youth Leader of Constituency 117 in the Western Area Alfred Sulaiman Mansaray
By Amara Samura
The Director of Crime Services in the Sierra Leone Police, AIG Brima Jah has said in Freetown that the police have put five million Leones (Le5M) ransom as reward to anyone who will help them arrest the All People’s Congress (APC) Party National Publicity Secretary Cornelius Deveaux and APC Youth Leader of Constituency 117 in the Western Area Alfred Sulaiman Mansaray.
The Police have declared the two wanted for their alleged involvement in the riot that took place on Friday May 31st 2019 at their party headquarters.
Addressing journalists at an emergency news conference held at police headquarters, AIG Jah accused Deveaux and Mansaray of inciting their colleagues after two high court judges declared the elections of ten APC Members of Parliament null and void.
Justices Komba Kamanda and Alhaji Momoh Jah Stevens of the High Courts of Sierra Leone ordered the National Electoral Commission to conduct a re-run election in Constituency 110 in the Western Urban area while the SLPP candidates who came second in the March 2018 General Elections should replace the APC Parliamentarians in Parliament.
This ruling did not go down well with APC supporters who staged a protest in front of their party headquarters in Freetown.
AIG Jah accused Mansaray of inciting party supporters to cause trouble contrary to the laws of the country.
He described the two men as ring leaders and organizers of the riot and protest at the APC headquarters immediately after the High Court judges ruled against the 10 APC Parliamentarians.
The crime buster pointed out that all those behind the Friday riot including Alfred Sulaiman Mansaray will face the full force of the law.
“The Le5M is for anyone that will help the Police to arrest Deveaux and Mansaray. I am appealing to the people to support us arrest these two ring leaders and organizers,” AIG Jah stressed.
According to reports reaching this medium, it was reliably understood that a young Sierra Leonean by the name of Saio Sorious Samura was beaten almost to death in the hands of some irate youths in the community where he was residing for involving in a gay sexual affair otherwise known as homosexuality.
In a country where being a gay or a lesbian is widely frowned upon and considered to be a serious taboo and a grave offences for which any perpetrator could be lynched to death in the form of mob justice, as the oldest Islamic communities in Sierra Leone.
Indeed, for most families in this country, any member found wanting is deemed to have brought a big shame on the family and as such is culpable to be ostracized or stone to death. Equally too, religious believers in this part of the world see such as very ungodly and totally unacceptable.
A close neighbor explain to this medium that when they transferred to the Fourah Bay Community December 2013, Sulaiman Hamid (Afasu) who was their landlord who also happened to be a Gay and was also a seemingly pious Muslim.
He furthered that on the 2nd June 2019 one Mr. Affa Bilal came to the house of Sulaiman Hamid, who happens to be the landlord of Saio and his mother, as Bilal occasionally call the landlord to go for evening prayers at a nearby mosque. On that day, Bilal used the back door to enter the house because he has been suspecting a clandestine relationship between the Landlord and Saio. In the process of entering the house he proved himself right as he caught them red handed on the act.
Upon seeing them having sex, Bilal started shouting: Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! “Allahwakbar”, neighbour reach to attendance and some community youths they further grab the landlord by his neck, beaten and was stabbed to death later dragged him outside while hitting Saio on his head. At that same time irate youths falls on Saio and was beaten mercilessly to the point of death leaving him bleeding from different parts of his body until he became unconscious, body was picked by police in a bag to the station but later noticed by people that he was still alive.
Whether Saio will turn up and survive is a wait and see situation, but according to one of the police boss sergeant Kamara says when Saio Sorious Samura regained his health he will be sent to jail for such an act because the law is against it and also our customs so their is no protection for homosexual.
Olusegun Obasun, Executive Director, Guaranty Trust Bank (SL) Limited
Sierra Leone is a nation on a journey of self-discovery, working hard to convert its vast riches into both economic wealth and social wellbeing for the benefit of the entire 7.7 million population. The country is blessed with an abundance of mineral resources, which include diamonds, chromite, rutile (among the largest reserves in the world), iron ore, titanium ore, bauxite, gold and platinum, as well as fishery resources and arable land—all of which have been poorly exploited. Sierra Leone remains among the world’s poorest countries, ranking 184th out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI) report for 2018.
The economy of Sierra Leone grew at an annual rate of 7.8 percent over the period 2003-2014 but was undone in 2015 when it contracted by 20.5 percent due to the collapse of the two major iron-mining companies, Africa Minerals Limited and London Mining, caused by the fall in international iron-ore prices and the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, creating a medical emergency that led to the failure of many businesses and caused unprecedented job loss. Sixty percent of youth today are either under- or unemployed.
In Sierra Leone, the population heavily depends on food importation to cater to its consumption needs. Low foreign-revenue receipts are used among other competing needs to finance the importation of food because of the low level of agricultural outputs. Recognising agriculture as the biggest employer of labour, there is increasing active promotion of and support for the growth of agriculture and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs); agriculture accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and MSMEs employ 70 percent of the population. The Roadmap for National Agricultural Transformation (2018) targets four enablers for transforming the agricultural sector: improvement of the policy environment, promotion of women and youth in agriculture, establishment of private-sector-led mechanisation and sustainable management of biodiversity.
Financial inclusion
There is now a general acceptance that the financial sector has a central role to play in combating the current high levels of poverty and income inequality—a major component of which is the provision of financial access to the excluded 87 percent of the population, the bulk of whom are rural-based and dependent on subsistence agriculture for survival. The central bank expects the financial-inclusion system to fast-track growth and empower the poor with both capital and access—and thus reduce income inequality and poverty, and promote social cohesion and shared economic development. The central bank launched the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion in 2017, with the vision to make financial services available, accessible and affordable to all Sierra Leoneans and MSMEs, and support inclusive and resilient private-sector-led growth.
The contribution of the financial sector to the growth of the economy, however, continues to be hampered by major infrastructural gaps particularly in information and communication technology (ICT), power and energy, and institutional voids exemplified by the inefficiencies in capital and labour markets, weak property rightsand challenges encountered in the enforcement of rights through the court. These limitations increase the cost of business, escalate risks and reduce the chances of success of business, and they must therefore be removed by government to promote entrepreneurial growth. Even though the central bank has taken the initiative by rolling out the strategy to promote financial inclusion, not much progress has been made. One of the major reasons has been the inability of most of the population to meet the stringent identification requirements prescribed in the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act 2012 of Sierra Leone, which limits acceptable identity documents to only international passports, National ID cards and drivers’ licenses.
This excludes sizeable parts of the population from the financial system, as most do not need these documents in their daily lives. As a means of ensuring low-risk customers are accommodated in the financial system, Guaranty Trust Bank (Sierra Leone) pointed out this inconsistency and submitted a position paper to the central bank calling for the introduction of risk-based, three-tiered, know-your-customer (KYC), flexible account-opening requirements for low-value and low-risk accounts that are subject to caps and restrictions as the number of transactions increases. The central bank has adopted GT Bank (SL)’s position paper and is on the verge of rolling out a four-tiered version of the proposal.
The entrance of Guaranty Trust Bank (Sierra Leone) Limited [GTBank (SL) Ltd], a subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria, into Sierra Leone, starting in 2002, has served to radically transform the whole banking landscape and bring it in tune with fast-paced, customer-centric, technology-driven modern-day banking. The bouquet of innovative financial products and services specially designed and introduced to meet the divergent needs of the people has helped to expand the breadth of the economy, and the massive expansion of branch networks has helped some of the underserved and unbanked population to be reached. Also, improvement in efficiency has been triggered by the introduction of more advanced technology and increased competition among industry players.
The performance of GT Bank (SL) in the Sierra Leone market has transformed it into a household name in the corporate- and consumer-banking industry on account of its consistent delivery of efficient services, innovation and year-on-year growth. The bank has consistently been among the most profitable and best-run banks in the country over the past six years. This performance has been despite the challenging market conditions and fierce competition in the industry. By a large extent, GT Bank (SL) has achieved market dominance in both the upper corporate-banking and middle commercial-banking segments of the market and intends to achieve the same in the lower retail and SME segments, with a view to accomplishing financial-inclusion objectives, facilitating accretion of social capital and mobilizing cheap deposit liabilities.
The bank recently launched its five-year-strategy growth plan predicated on the expansion of the bank’s retail footprints across the country. This strategic approach involves leveraging on partnerships with fintech companies to provide customers with innovative digital product solutions designed to meet diverse needs, delivered in a cost-effective manner. Through these partnerships, the bank has been able to set the pace in digital banking innovations. It pioneered the rollout of several products, including SMS banking, a Leone-denominated MasterCard debit card and internet banking, and it gave a fillip to the adoption of ATM (automated teller machine) and POS (point of sale) channels by the general population.
Considering that Sierra Leone’s population is one of the poorest in the world with a significant number listed at the base of the pyramid—with internet penetration and access to utilities remaining very low—cost becomes a big consideration in growing the retail market both on the part of the customers as well as the bank. It was generally accepted that to be a market leader and a preferred bank of choice in the retail business, we needed to leverage on branchless-banking technology to deliver products and services all over Sierra Leone without the use of the internet.
This has led to our partnership with Mobinet Solutions Ltd to introduce GT-SIMPAY, the very first mobile-banking product built on SIM (subscriber identity module) overlay technology riding on encrypted SMS (short message service). The GT-SIMPAY technology is a path-breaking, disruptive innovation capable of facilitating the creation of an uncontested blue ocean market that will enable less educated and even the base-of-the-pyramid, unbanked population to consume services hitherto exclusive to more affluent consumers. GT-SIMPAY can be aptly defined as a frugal innovation, as its services are developed to fit the specific needs and requirements of retail markets and are delivered cheaply to give the financially vulnerable population opportunities for consumption. It is a transformational tool for redefining banking among the general populace and continues to captivate the imagination of many people. Today, our customers do not need to come to the bank to perform many banking transactions, and they can even buy electricity and pay bills from the comfort of their homes.
Through GT-SIMPAY, the bank is making a notable difference in providing customers with the service platform to self-bank, pay bills and purchase airtime. The next phase of the GT-SIMPAY revolution is transformational, through which the lives of the banking population and the currently unbanked population will be positively impacted. The GT-SIMPAY mobile-wallet feature enables customers to send money from their accounts to beneficiaries’ mobile-money accounts operated by Global System for Mobile (GSM) telecommunications companies. The beneficiaries can thereafter cash out from mobile-money agents. Mobile money has wider coverage than banks do in the country and is accessible in locations too remote for banks. This feature provides customers with the platform to send money to families in locations without a bank presence.
GT-SIMPAY is an innovation that can produce in Sierra Leone impact similar to that of M-PESA, a mobile payment solution that today has been embraced by half of the population of Kenya. With GT-SIMPAY, prospective customers will be able to open bank accounts instantly through their mobile phones and receive their account numbers immediately. The feature also permits bank agents to open accounts for customers, upload all of their details and relevant documents remotely, with the customer receiving the account number immediately. This is the ultimate financial-inclusion booster that eliminates paper and facilitates efficiency in service delivery.
GT Bank (SL)’s plan through GT-SIMPAY is to include persons who have been disenfranchised by diminished purchasing power from accessing the modern card-payment system. The card platform will enable our MasterCard debit card to be used for payments using the SMS-enabled POS and mPOS (mobile point-of-sale) terminals deployed at merchant locations. This will afford the low-income population the ability to enjoy the same banking service currently affordable only to the higher-income banking population.
Soon to be rolled out is the e-cheque. This is a feature that allows customers to send money to friends and family who do not maintain accounts with GT Bank (SL). With the e-cheque code generated and sent via SMS to them, beneficiaries can through an ATM either deposit e-cheques into their accounts or cash them out. It won’t be long before tomato and onion sellers at the popular Abacha Street market in Freetown will be able to accept non-cash payment through our Scan-to-Pay QR (quick response) feature. This is the ultimate cashless-banking facilitator.
It is worthwhile mentioning that GT-SIMPAY recently received recognition from the Asian Banker Excellence in Retail Financial Services, through which it was awarded the “Best Mobile Initiative, Application or Programme in West Africa for 2019”, firmly placing Sierra Leone on the regional digital-banking product map.
To reinforce its commitment to the delivery of banking products and services tailored to meet the diverse needs of its growing customer base, promote financial-inclusion objectives and minimise customer-service pain points, the bank plans to roll out by the middle of the year another digital mobile product called *3737#, which has been very successful in Nigeria since its launch in 2016. *3737# is built on USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) GSM communication technology that is used to send texts between a mobile phone and an application program in the network. With *3737#, customers will be able to perform banking transactions such as transfers to all banks in Sierra Leone, check account balances, open a GT Bank (SL) account, buy airtime, pay bills and lots more from their mobile phones.
Makeni, Sierra Leone, Africa – June 06, 2013: Makeni, Bombali District North of Sierra Leone, lifestyle in the main square during the marketFreetown, Sierra Leone – June 8, 2013: the beaches of the Aberdeen district
We at GT Bank (SL) are i bringing the nation into a new world of banking.
The Freetown City Council is hosting a delegation from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and their partners, Geneva Water Hub & UN Capital Development Fund.
The delegation’s visit aims to continue and concretize the discussions with Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr and Freetown City Council, around city twinning and blended finance partnerships, particularly for trans-boundary capital fundraising for support to the sustained delivery of services in the city of Freetown.
Mayor Aki-Sawyerr is exploring with development partners, the possibility of twinning partnerships with other municipalities from developed countries to assure better access to capital markets in order to finance the implementation of the Council’s Transform Freetown Agenda.
In the delegation’s preliminary meeting with the Mayor, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation has already pinpointed several areas where Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s Transform Freetown aligns with their financing scope, including job creation for youth to prevent migration, revenue mobilization and, most importantly, water. Together, Freetown City Council and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation will explore the possibility of a potential partnership to solve the growing water crisis, through the Agency’s Blue Peace Initiative.
This is an initial fact finding and scoping mission, which is headed by Johan Gély, Director Global Programme Water, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Other members of the delegation include Isabella Pagotto, Senior Advisor, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; Fabrice Fretz, Senior Regional Advisor West Africa (based in Dakar), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; Rukan Manaz, Senior Advisor, Geneva Water Hub; Sibylle Chevalier-Gianadda, Senior Advisor, Geneva Water Hub; Jaffer Machano, Manager, United Nations Capital Development Fund.
The National Grand Coalition Party (NGC) in a press release has lamented the events that took place on Friday 31 May 2019, which the NGC sees as symptomatic of a broken political system in urgent need of repair.
In the press release the NGC said: First, we condemn the judicial delays that have resulted in 10 rulings on elections petitions pertaining to the March 2018 vote for members of parliament. Why have we had to wait 14 months for these rulings? And why are some matters still outstanding? We remind the judiciary that justice delayed is justice denied. Such delayed justice has ethical and practical considerations, especially in the context of our lawmakers in Parliament, which is why it is always preferable to resolve these matters quickly.
According to the press release, the NGC further stated that: Second, we condemn the selective justice apparently at play in Sierra Leone today. Why is it that petitions predominantly of concern to members of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) have been resolved while matters of concern to other political parties, in this case the All People’s Congress (APC), have not even been listed for hearing? Why is it that petition cases brought by members of the NGC, and similar to those upheld on Friday 31 May, were dismissed by the judge without lawyers acting for NGC being allowed to present their cases. We recall with horror the violence visited upon our supporters in Tonko Limba, Kambia, Mile 91 and parts of the Western Area, to give just a few examples. Not only must justice be done, it must be seen to be done. We recall that rampant injustice was one of the main factors identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as a cause of the civil war this country was subjected to not so long ago.
The release added: Third, we condemn the excessive use of force by the Sierra Leone Police, including firing teargas canisters directly into the APC headquarters in Brookfields, as reported by Umaru Fofana on the BBC Focus on Africa and relayed live by AYV Television. State security forces have a duty to maintain internal security and law and order but they must do so humanely, respecting the human rights of the public at large. In 2018 Amnesty International produced a report documenting 10 years of use of excessive force by police to disperse spontaneous protests, with at least nine protesters killed and over 80 injured. Friday’s display of force was a frightening continuation of this practice, which in fact dates back to the pre-independence era under colonial rule.
The release went further to state that the SLP force directed at APC HQ was reminiscent of similar excessive police force used to quell SLPP supporters at their party HQ in 2007, 2008, and 2009. We again condemn this apparent tit for tat, “do me, ar do you” pattern of reprisals. An eye for an eye will leave us all blind. Now is the time to strengthen our state institutions and separate them from partisan political interests and break this vicious cycle of repression and violence.
The NGC release added: Fourth, we repeat our call for the resignation or removal of the Chief Electoral Commissioner, N’fa Alie Conteh, or the conduct of a Judicial enquiry into the Tonko Limba bye elections. Had NEC done its job properly during the elections in 2018 and vetted contestants properly and assessed the levels of violence in the run-up to and during polling, these petitioners would not have had recourse to use the courts. Instead, over a year after elections, decisions by two judges have altered the fundamental makeup of Parliament and precipitated a full-blown crisis. We must remember that Sierra Leone remains a fragile state: we cannot afford to take our peace and national cohesion for granted.
