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Members of the Big 6 of the All People’s Congress (APC) have broken their silence on Saturday after issuing a press release commending the party NAC and executive to adhere to the court ruling to adopt the new constitution.
The release stated that the name Big 6 came from the Party’s Secretary General and they did not object as they said they were coming together to seek internal peace which they say is a genuine response to the grassroots’ clarion call for peace in the aftermath of the 2018 elections, and they encouraged other colleagues to join them to build peace.
The release stated that “The Leadership welcomed our initiative, and endorsed our key objectives. To reiterate, our objectives are: a) to build confidence amongst flag bearer aspirants; b) work toward peace-building and fostering cohesion, and c) seek the establishment of fair and democratic rules to guide us peers and competitors.”
The Big 6 met with the leadership of the party in Makeni and proposed a comprehensive party-wide strategy, which they dubbed ‘The APC Roadmap 2023’ which is aimed at building peace and healing the party, strengthening party structures and its capacity to address technical issues bordering on elections preparedness, tracking ongoing civil registration exercise, becoming a functioning opposition, and winning the upcoming elections.
“We have taken due note of all the efforts by other well meaning members of our Party to foster peace and reconciliation. We are however appalled by actions of the National Secretariat to undermine such initiatives; the most recent of such unfortunate acts is the directive given by the National Secretary General to stop senior members of our Party from accessing the office on very ridiculous and flimsy grounds. Similar actions had denied Palo Conteh (Major Rtd), and the Moral Guarantors entry to the party office.” The release says.
The Big 6 say they are urging NAC and the National Secretariat to kindly consider the following recommendations: The Secretariat to implement the APC Roadmap 2023 endorsed by NAC two months ago without further delay — the Party is running behind time; The Secretariat to provide update on engagements with the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) on the implementation of the Justice Adrian Fisher Court Orders; The Secretariat to provide update on status of the last matter filed in Court against our Party; The Secretariat to adopt a clear action plan for the proposed convention; and publish dates, guidelines, rules and procedures for the conduct of the elections and the delegates; The Secretariat to publish the unredacted version of the draft constitution ahead of the convention in order to avoid controversy; The Secretariat to provide Guidelines for the use of our Party Office, avoid indiscriminate and highly subjective approval processes for the use of same; and NAC to reprimand National Officers that have overtly taken sides in the political race in support of some candidates. We demand that they be excluded from playing any active role in the pending intra-Party electoral processes.
We are willing to meet with the Leadership and NAC at their earliest convenience to deliberate on these and other issues of relevance in the best interest of our beloved Party.
They concluded by saying that they will provide assurances of their collective commitment to the aspirations of the Party; and willingness to continue to work with and assist the secretariat and Leadership at all times when called upon to do same.
