Just few days after the vacation of a long-running court injunction slammed on the opposition All Peoples Congress Party  (APC) as a result of litigation against the party by the National Reformation Movement (NRM) one of a few reformation groups of radical reformists emanating from the 2017 controversial National Delegates Convention, the party is embroiled in yet another court order restraining it from conducting party activities.

The injunction restrains the defendants, former President Ernest Bai Koroma, in his capacity as Chairman and Leader of the party, and Ambassador Dr Alhaji Osman Foday Yansanneh, Secretary General, “whether by themselves, servants, agents, privies, workmen, officials, or howsoever called, from holding any conference, convention, meeting, rally, or from taking part or organizing any such conference, convention, meeting or rally geared towards nominating, proposing, selecting or electing any delegates and/or candidates into the party executives for the day to day running of the party, pending the hearing and determination of this application or further order of this court”.

Filed by Alfred Peter Conteh, Chairman of the APC Reform Movement (ARM), the plaintiff, among other things, seeks the resignation of the Chairman and Leader, and the Secretary General, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma and Alhaji Dr Osman Foday Yansanneh respectively, whose mandate he believes had expired and therefore lack legitimacy to announce dates for conventions.

This new court order, issued by the High Court Presided over by justice Adrian Fischer, has sent cold shivers down the spinal cord of the Party even as the way forward can be charted after the throwing out of court of the NRM litigation.

It can be recalled that one of the plaintiffs in the NRM matter, Sulaymani Bumneh Kamara refused to sign a Memorandum of Understanding following a meeting with the Party’s National Advisory Committee (NAC) in Makeni aimed at reaching an out of court settlement and pave the way for the conduct of party activities.

“With this trend of successive court matters, the chances of the part wresting power from the ruling party come 2023 are bleak”, remarked an opposition politician.

Making matters worse, the party is bedeviled by a polarizing intra-partisan struggle for the position of flagbearer, which has the propensity for deepened disunity and peace, required for a consolidated front to contest the 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections.