And can it be true?
One of my favourite Church hymns is “And can it be that I should gain…?” It was written by Charles Wesley (1707-88) the brother of John Wesley (1708-91) who founded the Methodist Church. Charles Wesley composed more than a hundred hymns many of them with familiar tunes like “Arise my soul arise.” The first hymn is based on the miraculous rescue of the Apostles Paul and Silas from the dungeon to which had been confined while awaiting their final fate; I find the last two lines of the last memorable verse of the hymn particularly moving, nay inspiring. “My chains fell off my heart was free, I rose went forth and followed Thee.” (Photo: Dr. Sama Banya)
The Unity newspaper reported an interesting piece of news in its Friday February 11 edition to wit, that the Chairwoman of the National Electoral Commission had admitted in an SLBC tea break programme that there was no law which empowered the cancellation by anyone of votes of a Polling station. She was further said to have expressed the urgent need for such legislation on one.
We in the SLPP opposition as well as most legal luminaries have been aware of the fact from the day that the notorious woman sold our party out by conspiring with others to cancel the ballots of 477 polling stations, mostly in areas we considered our political strongholds. Her lame excuse was that there had been over voting in those polling stations. In collusion with the advocates of regime change headed by the UN’s Victor Angelo and carried out by the Italian Mafioso Carlos Valenzuela. We were confident that but for that conspiracy even Charles Margai’s PMDC support for the APC would not have prevented our victory at the polls. Naturally we did not take it lying down and even now the matter is before the courts. It has been repeated times over that because Ernest had been sworn in and was now occupying the Presidential seat, our objective was NOT to remove him from office but to make sure that never again would anyone be allowed to take the law into their hands and do that which even they know was wrong. The matter is still before the courts.
With apologies to the trustees of the Wesley Trust, I ask, And can it be true that that the lady who is the heroine of the likes of Olu Gordon now admits that there is no law in our statutes that empowers anyone to cancel the results from any polling station?
What is the next step that she must now advise herself to take, except to make an open and unqualified apology to the opposition SLPP, to its flag bearer at the time and to the entire nation for blatant betrayal of the trust reposed in her former President Tejan-Kabbah and the last Parliament?
The rest of us who have been abused and our reputation dragged in the mud, the acknowledgment of her sinful deed is enough for us. We are satisfied with being vindicated. But will she? According to the Unity report all she has done is to emphasize the need for such an act to become law without delay. The lady shows no remorse as she fixes her eyes on 2012.
What do these do-gooders and self-assumed experts in law take the rest of us for, “bufehs?” The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) carries out an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the purchase of rotten ferries with the peoples’ money. As a result of that investigation it decided to charge certain people to court obviously with criminal offences. Then suddenly the ACC boss decides on an out-of-court plea settlement, an action that has called forth universal condemnation from all sectors of society. And now Professor Peep Gordon who is a renowned authority on indictable and non indictable offences comes out with a lot of words, most of it nonsense, and trying to persuade us that no crime was committed by the men except perhaps mismanagement.
So why did the ACC charge them to court in the first place if their only crime was one of mismanagement?
Come on, Olu, we may not be knowledgeable in law, in fact we may even be illiterate, but for Pete’s sake don’t attempt to pull wool over our eyes with your definition of what constitutes a criminal act.
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