The Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) will find out this morning whether Ambassador Alie Bangura and his group of petitioners are ready to embrace peace which the opposition SLPP badly needs to put the party on proper footing.

Ambassador Bangura and his group had met three times with the national executive led by the SLPP National Chairman/Leader, Chief Somano Kapen in recent weeks under the auspices of the PPRC to chat the way forward for peace.

It was agreed at the last meeting that each side should reconsider its position including the withdrawal of all court cases by the Alie Bangura group and rescinding his expulsion order by the other side.

Party stalwarts are however suspicious of the intenstification in recent days of the court cases particualrly the injunction order sought by the Alie Bangura side restraining the party from practically functioning. Although the Supreme Court is yet to rule on the injunction order, the court cases themselves have created serious doubts in the minds of party faithful as to whether the Ambassador Bangura group is genuinely committed to the peace process.
Ambassador Bangura had initially in 2013 rejected the PPRC peace plan, seen by many as the road map to peace. He instead took the SLPP to court and the matter has dragged on for almost two years now.

Recently, after his expulsion from the SLPP following another rounds of Supreme Court action against the opposition party, Ambassador Bangura quickly sought the intervention of the PPRC where he was told his court cases were not helpful to himself or the party. A PPRC source told Global Times last week that the Ambassador had indicated his willingness to embrace peace by withdrawing all court cases soon. That remained to been seen.

The outcome of today’s meeting will determine whether Ambassador Bangura and his group are as according to PPRC sources genuinely ready to embrace peace or were simply buying time to pursue their court cases which had over the past two years crippled the SLPP.

It can be recalled that Ambassador Alie Bangura led a group of people to commence legal action against the SLPP in 2013 after he lost the Chairmanship contest to Chief Somano Kapen in Bo.