A Sierra Leone human rights campaigner has called on Parliament to initiate the impeachment of President Maada Bio for undermining democracy.

Based in the United Kingdom, Mr. Mohamed Salieu Kamara wrote this letter to the House of Parliament urging them to take immediate action against Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio. The letter to the parliamentarians reads thus:

“I write to urge you and your fellow members of Parliament to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Julius Maada Bio. The depth of President Bio’s corruption and obstruction of justice demands immediate action”.
The full letter is as follows –

3 Cedar Road, Haringey, London
N17 8NB, United Kingdom.

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[email protected] +447958702108
13th November 2022

Sierra Leone Parliament, OAU Drive Tower Hill
Freetown Sierra Leone
West Africa

Dear Hon Chernor Maju Bah, MP

I write to urge you and your fellow members of Parliament to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Julius Maada Bio. The depth of President Bio’s corruption and obstruction of justice demands immediate action.

Action to prevent a hostile foreign government to intervene before it gets too late and gets out of hand. President Bio has violated countless standards of public integrity and personal decency he is dangerously unfit to hold the presidency.

I am appealing to all members of Parliament from all political parties to hold President Julius Maada Bio on constitutional grounds for Presidential impeachment that they should report by the Staff of the committee of the Judiciary within.

Two impeachment inquiries have involved claims that the President grossly violated the constitution’s separation of powers, holding the President accountable for “high crimes and misdemeanors” not only upholds democracy but also vindicates the separation of powers.

Our President holds the ultimate public trust he is vested with powers so great that they frightened the framers of our constitution of 1991; in exchange, he swears an oath to faithfully execute the laws that hold those powers in check this oath is no formality the framers foresaw that a faithless President could destroy their experiment in a democracy our principal conclusions are as follows the purpose of impeachment, as the framers deliberated in Sierra Leone.

In prior impeachment inquiries addressing allegations of Presidential misconduct in the Audit Report highlighted criminal activities of President Bio, the staff of the Judiciary Committee should now prepare reports addressing relevant principles of constitutional law – impeachable offenses President conclude that menaced the constitution.
Many framers of the constitution knew this well, they saw corruption erode the Sierra Leone constitution of 1991 from within the system.

Impeachment is part of democratic constitutional governance not an exception to it. It results in the President’s removal from office only when a majority of the House of Parliament, and then a super-majority of the members of Parliament, conclude that he has engaged in sufficiently grave misconduct that his term in office must be brought to an early end this process does not “nullify” the last election in 2018, no President is entitled to persist in office after committing ‘high crimes and misdemeanors, and no voter is entitled to expect that their preferred candidate will do so, under the constitution, when a President engages in great and dangerous offenses against the nation thus betraying their Oath of Office impeachment and removal by members of Parliament may be necessary to protect our democracy.

In light of the above waiting so long might be fatal to the Republic, particularly demonstration where the President’s misconduct is aimed at corrupting our democracy, relying on elections to solve the problem is insufficient, it makes no sense to wait for the ballot box when a President stands accused of interfering with most bye-elections and is poised to do so again numerous framers spoke directly to this point at the constitutional convention.

Impeachment is the only remedy for a President who will do anything legal or not remain in office allowing the President a free pass is thus the wrong move when he is caught trying to corrupt elections in the final year of his first five-year term just as he prepares to face the voters in the 2023 general elections next year in June.

Impeachment was seen as especially necessary for Presidential conduct corrupting our system of political self-government that concern arose in multiple contexts as the framers debated the constitution of 1991. The most important was the risk that Presidents would place their interest in re-election above our bedrock national commitment to democracy consideration of articles of impeachment is always a sad and solemn undertaking.

In the end, it is the House speaking for the nation as a whole that must decide whether the President’s conduct rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors warranting impeachment.

However, common sense confirms what the law provides: a President may be impeached if he attempts a grave abuse of power, is caught along the way, abandons his plan, and subsequently seeks to conceal his wrongdoing.

A President who attempts impeachable offenses will surely attempt them again. The impeachment power exists so that the nation can remove such Presidents from power before their attempts finally succeed.

Yours sincerely,

Electronically signed,

Mohamed Salieu Kamara
Human Rights Activist Campaigner UK

CC;
All International Partners both Home and Abroad
Secretary to the President State House
Anti Corruption Commission ACC Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala
Office of National Security (ONS)
The Judiciary of Sierra Leone
The Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone.