By Sam Pratt
The Acting Publicity Officer of the All Peoples Congress (APC) Sidi Yaya Tunis has told Calabash that the party’s weekend delegate’s conference will takes place in Port Loko this weekend of January 11, 12 and 13th.
Mr. Tunis said the arrangements have almost completed as the deputy Leader of the party and the Secretary General were in Port Loko Last week to check the facilities to make sure that they will be able to host all the delegates, observers and journalists during the conference.
He said the Finance committee too has worked relentlessly to raise enough funds to meet the financial demands. He also thanked the former MPs who he said made a Le30 million donation few days ago.
“On the delegates list, we will be using the one we used in the last convention in Makeni as we hope to have over 600 members across the country and the Diaspora who will be present to take the required decision for the better and stronger party.”
When asked the reason for this convention of conference, Sidi Yaya Tunis said they are going to Port Loko for two main reasons – the first he said is to look at the revised constitution and vote on it to be the one the party will be working with and secondly to fix a date for the next delegates conference that they will be able to choose the part executives and flag bearer for 2023.
“During this conference delegates will look at the constitution whether to make more inputs or amend areas that they deem unnecessary, but it is very clear that the constitution will be adopted and becomes the new bible of the party. The new constitution is what will take us to an elective congress and the date will be set as we are looking to towards end of this year.”
He said the current 1995 constitution is what will take them to the convention. Sidi said that members that are yet to pay their dues must do so as the party needs their financial support to get the party on track as he said they are poised to get their acts together and be the formidable opposition.
“Sierra Leoneans say we are not performing our role as opposition party that is not true, we have been playing our role by calling press conference, sending our press releases and also having discussions on radio and TV to constructively criticize the government and we will continue to do that after our convention.”
The acting Publicity Secretary said averred that during the conference they might discuss other items during any other business as there might be many issues to discuss as they are expecting the matter of the nine MPs appeal cases that are yet to be heard, the Constituency 110 election, the terminal leave of the Chief Electoral Commissioner issue, the incarceration of their members etc.
Mr Sidi Yaya Tunis said the party hierarchy understands that this conference is very important to bring all comrades together as the party needs to be united and strong. He said they believe that there are challenges but they are not insurmountable because they are humans and they will definitely unite and be prepared to take over 2023.
He called on all Sierra Leoneans to be patient as everybody is complaining about the hardship and economic problems they are facing, but said things will change when they come back in 2023.
