A high-profile APC party politician from Kono district once said at a meeting held at a hotel in New York City, USA, that, the agreement between them and the APC party was that if they gave their support to expel former Vice President Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana from office, one amongst them will replace him. But unfortunately, this gentleman’s agreement didn’t hold as former President Ernest Koroma went ahead and appointed Ambassador Hon. Victor Bockarie Foh leaving the Konos out in the cold
The deeper you delve into the rift between former Vice President Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana and the APC party the more you become entangled in what many political pundits would describe as walking through a spider’s Web.
Former Vice President Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana was considered the automatic heir-apparent to former President Ernest Koroma after his second and final term as president of the Republic of Sierra Leone. Many party supporters held firmly to that belief until when things began to fall apart.
The rift between the two most senior gentlemen destroyed the entire APC party’s succession plan. It later became a free-for-all succession chaos with over twenty candidates running for only one flag bearer position.
How did it all start with Chief Sam Sumana?
The perplexed and flabbergasted former Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana, became so worried about the snobbish attitude shown to him by his boss, “Comaneh- Biangeh- In-law”, former President Ernest Koroma.
According to the former Vice President himself, he made several attempts to contact high-profile personalities including the wife of the former Nigeria President Mrs. Goodluck Jonathan to intervene and settle the dispute between him and his boss but to no avail. According to sources close to the former Vice President, he had no idea whatsoever about why his former boss would have decided to distance himself and cut ties completely from him.
Although some of the reasons for the dismissal of Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana were not written on stone walls, one close insider said that #Chief Sam Sumana opposed the idea of former President Ernest Koroma running for a 3rd term, and he, Chief Sam, had earlier said that, come rain, come to shine he will be President of the country even if it was just for one day.
According to one close insider who disclosed that former President Ernest Koroma said, Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana had a blind ambition of becoming President and therefore will be fired in the coming months. Note that, the plan to fire Chief Sam Sumana had already been planned before those allegations were craftily crafted by Ambassador Osman Foday Yansaneh and a few others including Diana Kinomani, Ambassador John Yambasu, Logus and Karamoh Kabba all from Kono district.
Not surprisingly, therefore, a few months later the former Vice President was expelled from the APC party and subsequently as Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
The charges that were brought up against the former Vice President were considered by many legal luminaries as “trumped-up” charges and premeditated ploys craftily crafted to eliminate him for what they referred to as, committing an anti-party activity and there putting the name of the party into disrepute.
To add credence to the notion that they were already trumped-up charges fabricated entirely to eliminate Chief Sam Sumana, at a meeting held in a hotel in New York City after the removal of Sam and the appointment of Ambassador Hon. Victor Bockarie Foh as Vice President, one of the key plotters of the “constitutional Coup”, Ambassador John Yambasu disclosed that, former President Ernest Koroma has disappointed the people of Kono district because the agreement between the Kono plotters and he was that, one amongst them will be appointed as Vice President if they throw their support behind the expulsion plan against Chief Sam. Our source disclosed that Ambassador John Yambasu was almost in tears while explaining his ordeal faced with former President Ernest Koroma.
“This was an agreement amongst us that if we the Kono politicians supported him he would appoint one of us to become Vice President after Chief Sam Sumana’s expulsion to appease the Kono people.
One can’t stop laughing at the unreasonable charges brought up against the former Vice president. Talking about his academic qualifications, religious affiliation, dishonest behaviors, and so on and so forth. The charges were all based on hearsay and weren’t backed by any supporting documents.
As a law-abiding citizen and a Peace Ambassador, the former Vice President opted for legal redress at the country’s Supreme Court to challenge the legality surrounding his dismissal as Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
In an unprecedented landmark ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that the President has the executive authority to hire and fire his vice president.
Not pleased with the decision given by the Supreme Court, the former Vice President went to the court ECOWAS regional Court and challenged the decision of the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone. In a complete twist of event, the ECOWAS court ruled in favor of the former Vice President and called upon the government of Sierra Leone to reinstate him and pay all his benefits. This decision was immediately communicated to the government of Sierra Leone through the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara aka JFK for action. As principal legal advisor to the government, JFK rejected the decision of the ECOWAS because according to him ECOWAS had no jurisdiction over Sierra Leone a sovereign and independent country. Based upon the legal advice from lawyer JFK, the former Vice President never received his benefits as directed by the ECOWAS court.
However, all avenues exploited by the former Vice President to receive his benefits proved futile and there seems to be no end in sight. But only God Almighty knows when and how.
A close member of the Koroma family disclosed that at some point in time, the former President regretted his actions against his in-laws and decided to fly to Ghana to privately meet with Chief Sam Sumana where they were able to settle their differences, sources disclosed.
Upon his return to Sierra Leone, the former Vice President headed straight to Makeni to meet with former President Ernest Koroma at his residence where they took that iconic photo of tightly hugging each other. That move by the former Vice President didn’t go down well in many quarters most especially among those APC party members who plotted against him. They saw the return of the former Vice President to the party as a big threat to their very survival and also feared retaliation because of their past actions. They also got angry with former President Ernest Koroma because he didn’t consult any party members before heading to Ghana to reconcile with Chief Sam Sumana.
As if the first battle was a joke, they ganged up once again determined more than ever before to fight with their last blood to ensure that the former Vice President Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana never returns to the APC party.
To execute their plans, they brought all sorts of obnoxious clauses and included them in the revised 1995 APC party constitution just to disqualify him from contesting as flag bearer of the party.
Meanwhile, now that former President Ernest Koroma is out of the scene, Dr. Samura Kamara is entangled in a long-drawn legal battle with the government, and the current National Chairman, Hon. Minkailu Mansaray is also becoming an armchair administrator who hardly moves outside of his cubicle, the strength of the party’s now standing on a mosquito leg.
The only way out
The party has now placed itself in a difficult situation marred by camps and various fighting factions all eyeing only one flag bearer position leaving behind the very critical issues of affecting the party.
That notwithstanding, what the party needs now is for the National Chairman Hon. Minkailu Mansaray to set up the National Peace and Reconciliation Committee of the APC party to bring all aggrieved comrades under one roof to hold each other hand and sing the party’s victory song once and for all. Without peace and reconciliation, the party will never come out of the woods.
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