Resident Minister condemns Jonathan Leigh
The Resident Minister, East, Honourable William Juana Smith (in photo), has in an exclusive interview with Sierra Express Media, on Saturday, November 2 this year, described the article by the Independent Observer Newspaper as a big slap on the All People’s Congress (APC) because the President that the article was referring to is the elected Leader and Chairman of the APC since 2007. He stated that they did not elect a rat to be their Leader and Presidential Candidate who has led this country for the past six years.
Hon. Smith maintained that the party demands a statement from the Vice President, Alhaji Sam Sumana, to dissociate himself from that article.
He observed that the statement of President Ernest Bai Koroma during a press conference at State House in Freetown to convince the public about his relationship with Vice President Samuel Sam Sumana was to let the people of this country know that the President and his Vice have a very cordial and brotherly relationship.
He highlighted among other things that the APC must know how it was Hon. Samuel Sam Sumana who helped the party financially during Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2007, which they won.
He indicated to this medium that he was talking as one of the thousands of people who is highly committed and devoted to the party and has played a leading role in resuscitating after the brutal and oppressive regime of the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) that arbitrarily killed perceived members of the APC.
He said that the APC is a disciplined and fatherly party that will take disciplinary action against anyone that is trying to drag the name of the party to the gutter.
He quoted Section 42 (1) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone which states that a “A Presidential Candidate shall be nominated by a political party,” and Section 54 which states that “There shall be a Vice President who shall be the Principal Assistant to the President in the discharge of his executive functions.”
He also explained that in the APC Constitution, they elect a Presidential Candidate of the party at the National Delegates’ Conference who is free to pick a Running Mate from any part of the country who, upon winning the election, becomes his Vice President.
He maintained that Vice President Sumana has twice been chosen by President Koroma as his Running Mate and he has been always been accepted by the party all over the country as well as in the diaspora.
I’ve assisted the President to bring peace tolerance and to monitored all development projects undertaken by his government through Parastatals, local councils as I consider local government in my region the eastern province as agents of development in the province. Therefore as chairman of the provisional Coordinating Committee established in the local government act of 2004, I monitor five councils in my region and most of the time I also settle chiefdom disputes that I see as a threat to the peace and development process in the country, said Hon. Smith.
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