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A long serving member of the Sierra Leone Parliamentary Press Gallery (SLPPG) and manager of Gbla TV, Mr Abdulai Gbla, has accused MP Munir Lansana of assaulting him while executing his duties as a journalist in Parliament.
According to journalist Abdulai Gbla, he was covering a scuffle that resulted from a controversial private member motion proposed by Hon Dr Mark Mahmoud Kalokoh seconded by Hon Hassan A. Sesay, to wit, Statutory Instrument No. 7 of 2022. The bill was laid on the table of the House on Saturday, 14 June 2022, due to its wider negative implications on society to be debated and annular.
The motion was moved in accordance with section 170(7) of
Constitution of Sierra Leone, Act No 6 of 1991 and in tandem with SO 25 (2) for the re-denomination of the leone (Consequential Provision regulation 2022 and the Bank of Sierra Leone Act (ACT No. 5 of 2019).
According to Abdulai Gbla, he was at the upper gallery when the scuffle started, adding that immediately after Members of Parliament, especially from the ruling side, voted against the bill, he went down to the Chamber to meet his colleague journalists hoping to interview Mps.
He said when he got to the Chamber he was trying to take footage of the fracas with his camera in the Well of Parliament when one of the Members of Parliament from the ruling SLPP party struck his camera to the ground. ‘I was rescued by the Leader of
Government Business, Hon Matthew Sahr Nyuma, and the Opposition Leader, Chernor Maju Bah.
Had I not been rescued by these leaders, Hon Munir Lansana would have completely damaged my media gadgets,’ journalist Gbla said.
He continued that he has reported the matter to the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLA)) for further action. Meanwhile, the alleged perpetrator, Munir Lansana, is one of the ten (10) Members of Parliament that was ushered into Parliament because of the unconstitutional removal of the 10 duly elected opposition party MPs through replacement by the High Court.
Other MPs called Munir Lansana ‘a court MP that succeeded to be an MP through a court ruling’.
Meanwhile, the Sierra Leone Association of Journalist is handling the situation and will investigate and probably issue a press release.
