It emerged last night that members of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) of the main opposition All People’s congress (APC) party have become divided over who they should endorse as their next presidential flag-bearer to take on the incumbent President, Brig. (Rtd) Julius Maada Bio, come 2023 polls.

According to report some NAC members strongly believe there are serious legal controversies swirling over the former 2018 APC presidential candidate, Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara, which they assert can play into the hands of the governing Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) if he emerges as the next presidential flag-bearer.

Report states many NAC members fear if the erstwhile APC presidential candidate is endorsed again at this unpredictable, crucial time when the SLPP Government is seriously pursuing him, it is possible that he would be disqualified at the eleventh hour should the courts find him wanting for the alleged criminal charges leveled against him in the matter involving the Sierra Leone Chancery in New York, USA. “Endorsing Samura Kamara as our next presidential flag-bearer is like taking a chance on gambling, you either win or lose; that is why I don’t want us to place our bet on him. It can be disappointing.” NAC member was quoted as saying.

There are also NAC members that are reportedly advocating for sacked Vice-Presidential Samuel Sam Sumana to have his membership fully reinstated so that he would have the opportunity to become the next presidential candidate and lead the APC into the 2023 polls.

Those supporting the sacked Vice President, the report states, believe since he is not among the ‘Persons of interest’, he will have nothing to fear if he is endorsed as the 2023 APC presidential flagbearer, adding that Samuel Sam Sumana’s presidential candidacy will give APC an advantage in the diamond-rich Kono District during the next national elections.

“Though Kono is a swing district, but with Sam Sumana, his people will follow him wherever he goes, while other would-be presidential aspirants do not have a strong political base like him,” asserts a NAC member supporting the sacked Vice President Sam Sumana.

The protagonist furthered that apart from Sam Sumana having a political base, he also has the wherewithal, Diaspora influence and political pedigree to make things happen like he demonstrated in the 2007 presidential election, when he funded the APC campaign with support from his foreign business partner.

There is also another APC NAC faction pushing for the presidential candidacy of the Opposition Leader in Parliament, Hon. Chernor Maju Ramadan Bah, who was running mate to Dr. Samura Kamara in the 2018 presidential election.

According to report, NAC members persuading the Opposition, Leader, day in day out, to gun for the 2023 presidential flag-bearer position believe Hon. Chernor Bah is a very reputable politician with an unblemished political record that will make him stand tall and marketable to the electorate if given the opportunity to lead the APC into the next polls.

The Satellite Newspaper reports that, Hon. Chernor Bah’s legal and parliamentary knowledge and experience coupled with his unblemished political record and down-to-earth character as a grassroots politician have reportedly convinced many NAC members to stick out their necks for him at all costs.

Meanwhile, The Satellite Desk has gathered that there is grand conspiracy within the main opposition APC party to bring down Dr. Samura Kamara as some stalwarts in the party are allegedly providing ample evidence against him in his alleged corruption cases by stealth.