Constitutional Rape – Sierra Leone Chief Justice Must Resign

The Chief Justice of Sierra Leone, Hon Justice Babatunde Edwards (in photo), may either be out rightly ignorant of the laws of Sierra Leone, and may therefore by every measure be deemed unfit and incompetent to occupy such a very sensitive and important position, or is a shadowy celebrated accomplice of the Julius Maada Bio SLPP government’s continued bastardization of the 1991 Constitution and other laws which may justify concerns parading many quarters that he is of the mentality, character and temperament of the ‘paopa’ misdirection caboodle, sworn to plunge this country into a quagmire of constitutional uncertainty.

I honestly hold no brief against Justice Biobelle Georgewill, who without any equivocation was quite clear in stating his ignorance or lack of understanding thereof of the laws of Sierra Leone, for his unprecedented ruling on a matter that is currently in the Supreme Court, but I would rather leave no inch unoccupied in my conclusion that the current Chief Justice of our Supreme Court, who is supposed to be the custodian of the laws, has in his recent actions proved himself otherwise and as such should resign.

Certainly, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court should not be told that laws are not made by mere directives contained in a memorandum.

Such mischief, coming from no less a person than the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, has to a very large extent subject the integrity of the courts and our judicial system to outright ridicule and scorn in the minds of right thinking Sierra Leoneans.

Nonetheless, such mischief is an unquestionable indication that the Supreme Court Czar is on a political mission for and on behalf of his ‘paopa’ caboodle and if not nip in the bud, just as a stitch in time saves nine, will accelerate the country’s nose dive into a quagmire of constitutional uncertainty.

Since the controversial and questionable election of Julius Maada Bio as President of Sierra Leone, the 1991 Constitution and other laws of the country have been objects of consistent rape.

Begining with the election of a Speaker of Parliament to the appointment of the Anti Corruption Commission boss and many other appointments;  inclusive of the cancellation of local council bye election results in Tonko Limba, for which a concern lies within the purview of the Supreme Court, and the surreptitious appointment of an Electoral Commissioner-South, alongside many other instances which does not exclude throwing out of the courts election petitions against opposition MPs pursuant to  Section 78(2) of the 1991 Constitution and the establishment of a Kangaroo court styled Commission of Inquiry, Sierra Leoneans are victims of a consistent and systematic constitutional rape been perpetrated by this government and the Judiciary, judged by the actions and words of the Chief Justice, seem an accomplice.

For the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to act on the conviction that the laws of this country can be simply amended or enacted by a directive contained in a memorandum and not by an Act of Parliament speaks volumes of the violability of the rule of law under this government and the fragility and uncertainty of the Judiciary as the interpreter and custodian of the law.

This may not be my party’s position as a meeting would soon commence to discuss this ugly development, but as a practicing politician of twenty odd years standing who knows the inextricable cord that bonds good governance and the rule of law,  it is my honest opinion that a judiciary that does not guarantee the safeguard of the Constitution and the rule of law, as evident in the recent actions of the Chief Justice, is one of the indicators of a fragile state and I hope Britain’s modern day Governor General to Sierra Leone who doubles as the political godfather of the SLPP government, Guy Warrington, is taking notes.

My conclusion is, it is but proper for the Chief Justice, Hon Babatunde Edwards, to graciously tender his resignation for the unpardonable breach of the laws in his memorandum wherein he has asked judges to enact/amend a law  relating to the penalty for the offence of sexual penetration on the bench.

Cornelius Deveaux, National Publicity Secretary, All Peoples Congress

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