108 Constituents Blast ‘Flawed White Paper’
Over calumny attack on their MP…
108 Constituents Blast ‘Flawed White Paper’
Members of Constituency 108 in the Western Rural District of Freetown have strongly reacted against the government’s White Paper on the recommendations of the Commissions of Inquiry mounted to check the former government of President Ernest Bai Koroma.
Upon the release of the government White Paper on Wednesday 24th September 2020 President Julius Maada Bio accepted the recommendations of the Commissions of Inquiry. In the White Paper, Honorable Kemokoh Conteh was named among the persons of interest who should be investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for alleged corruption during his reign as Member of Parliament at the administration of Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma.
The people of Constituency 108 expressed their disappointment over the naming of their children “We, the confide electors of Constituency 108 who elected Honorable Kemokoh Conteh, consider this as a deliberate and malicious political calumny of the SLPP government White Paper with the intent of smearing the reputation of the highly esteemed parliamentarian.” The release said.
The release noted that Honorable Kemokoh Conteh was duly elected by his constituents on 7th March 2018 with a landslide victory of 13,570 (57.09%) valid votes cast for him. He was democratically declared the winner by the National Returning Officer who also doubles as the Chairman of the National Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone, Mr. Mohamed N’fa Alie Conteh pursuant to the power vested in him in section 94 of the Public Elections Act of 2012.
We are aware of the High Court’s attempted usurpation of his legitimacy, but we remain confident that the Supreme Court will soon reverse that erroneous and politically motivated judgment of the High Court.
Let it be known to all Sierra Leoneans that Honorable Conteh remains our elected, certified and legitimate Representative in the House of Parliament, until the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone decides otherwise. (The Court of Appeal has reneged to determine the matter within four months as provided in section 78(4) of Act No 6 of 1991, the Constitution of Sierra Leone.
Therefore, the dictions of the authors of the White Paper were prejudicial, and defamatory!
We totally condemn this flagrant publication of venomous content disguised under the cloak of anti-graft against the persona of our Parliamentarian.
We also observed that our Honorable was deliberately refused the right to natural justice as he was never given any reasonable opportunity to be heard on the said allegations as provided in section 23(5) of the 1991 Constitution.
At this juncture, we demand that the Chief Justice throw the Supreme expedites the reinstatement of our elected Member of Parliament.
The release ended by saying that “We also demand the immediate removal of his name from the said Command papers; the White Paper and the Green Paper”
By Emmanuel I. Kamara
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