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Prominent political commentator and media personality, Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden has renewed her call for Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor Bah, to publicly retract and apologize for describing a letter referenced by the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Hon. Abdul Kargbo, as “fake.”
In a lengthy public statement issued on June 9, Dr. Blyden accused the minister of attempting to “clarify” earlier remarks but instead deepening the controversy surrounding a letter linked to members of the European Parliament concerning Sierra Leone.
According to Dr. Blyden, Minister Bah had previously characterized the document cited by Hon. Kargbo as a fake letter and suggested that the opposition lawmaker had been “gullible” enough to rely on it. She argued that subsequent evidence had demonstrated that the correspondence was authentic and had been issued under the aegis of European Parliament member Malik Azmani.
“Following your ‘clarification’ attempt tonight, I am again demanding that you apologize to the public for saying the European Parliament Letter referenced by the Leader of the APC in Parliament, Hon. Abdul Kargbo, was a ‘fake’ and that Hon. Kargbo, according to you, was ‘gullible’ enough to fall for a ‘fake,’” Dr. Blyden stated.
She further claimed that she had intentionally withheld additional information to determine whether the minister would retract his comments and apologize.
In her statement, Dr. Blyden referenced a video posted on the LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) platforms of Malik Azmani, a Dutch politician and Member of the European Parliament. She said an English-language transcript generated from the video indicated that colleagues from the Netherlands’ People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and members from Belgium had joined Azmani in signing the letter.
Based on that interpretation, Dr. Blyden argued that the document was not signed solely by one parliamentarian, as she alleged government representatives had suggested, but instead involved multiple Members of the European Parliament.
“So it is confirmed that several Belgium and Netherlands MPs co-authored and co-signed the letter,” she wrote, adding that this contradicted claims that the document had been endorsed by only one European lawmaker.
Dr. Blyden also emphasized Malik Azmani’s position within the VVD, describing him as a senior member and leader of the VVD delegation in the European Parliament. She argued that the involvement of lawmakers from more than one European country underscored the significance of the correspondence and should not be dismissed by government officials.
Addressing another point of contention, Dr. Blyden challenged assertions that the document could not be described as correspondence from the European Parliament. While acknowledging that the letter was not a formal resolution of the Parliament, she maintained that it was nonetheless a letter originating from European Parliament members and bore the institution’s name and logo.
“Nobody called it a Resolution of the European Parliament but it is definitely a Letter from the European Parliament signed by several MPs who discussed it before they signed it,” she stated.
The minister also disputed claims that the letter could not be found on official European Parliament platforms. However, Blyden directed attention to Malik Azmani’s official page on the European Parliament website, arguing that the document was accessible through links associated with the parliamentarian’s official online presence.
Dr. Blyden concluded her statement by reiterating her demand for what she described as both an apology and a retraction from Minister Bah, directed to Hon. Abdul Kargbo and the citizens of Sierra Leone.
“I do hope my education tonight has been helpful to you. Are you now gearing up to retract and apologize to the Nation sir?” she wrote.
As of press time, there had been no immediate response from Minister Chernor Bah to Dr. Blyden’s latest remarks. The dispute centers on differing interpretations of the status, authenticity, and significance of the European Parliament-linked letter that has become a subject of political debate in Sierra Leone.
