APC Reinstates Sam Sumana
The National Advisory Committee (NAC) of the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) has on Tuesday 8th September 2020 reinstated the former Vice President, Alhaji Chief Samuel Sam Sumana to the APC. The decision was taken by the second highest body of the party in the regional headquarters town of Makeni.
According to the National Secretary General, Alhaji Ambassador Osman Foday Yansaneh informed this medium that it is indeed the decision of the NAC to reinstate the former Vice President back to the APC party. He said the former Vice President, Sam Sumana was expelled from the party due to anti party activities back in 2015, adding that “as from today’s decision by NAC, Chief Sam Sumana is now a legitimate member of the APC party”.
It could be recall that on the 17th March 2015, President Koroma sacked Sam-Sumana as vice president on the grounds that he had abandoned his position and sought asylum in the United States Embassy in Freetown, and for not belonging to a political party although it was reported by several local and international media that Sam-Sumana fled his residence fearing for his life, before soldiers had surrounded his house and disarmed his security team. The Sierra Leone government said Sam-Sumana was not in any danger and that soldiers only came to Sam-Sumana’s house to rotate his security team. President Ernest Bai Koroma sacked Sam-Sumana for also not belonging to a political party, though he was expelled from the APC party by the National Advisory Council of the All People’s Congress on March 6, 2015.
Sam-Sumana said his sacking by President Ernest Bai Koroma was unconstitutional and has appealed to the Sierra Leone Supreme Court.
The sacking of Sam-Sumana was described as unconstitutional by the then main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), the Sierra Leone Labour Congress, which represent the country’s trade union, and by the Sierra Leone Bar Association, which is made up of many of the country’s lawyers.
The APC National Advisory Council expelled Sam-Sumana on accusations of Sam-Sumana allegedly giving false information about his master’s degree certificate; he was accused of allegedly instigating political violence in Kono District; was accused of allegedly trying to form a breakaway faction of a new political party; and was also accused of allegedly giving false information about his religion. Sam-Sumana denied all the allegations against him and has appealed his sacking as vice president. Sam-Sumana denied all the allegations against him; and described them as completely wrong and baseless.
Sam-Sumana served as the managing director of the United Diamond Mining Company based in Koidu Town, Kono District, Sierra Leone. He also served as the regional manager for C-12 International, a Texas based mining company engaged in diamond production in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
Sam-Sumana is a devout Muslim and a member of the Kono ethnic group. Sam-Sumana is married to Khadija Sam-Sumana. The couple resided in Minnesota in the United States, but returned to Freetown in 2007 when Sam-Sumana was named as running mate by opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma on the ticket of the All People’s Congress (APC).
Sam Sumana led a breakaway faction of the APC known as Coalition for Change (C4C) and contested in the 2018 elections winning 8 Parliamentary seats and several council seats in the strategic Kono district. In a chaotic turn of events in the former ruling APC party, the arrest and harassment of former APC party and government officials, many see Samuel Sam Sumana as the game changer with the character and appeal to bring back the party into power in 2023.
By Emmanuel I. Kamara
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