Mayor Yvonne-Aki Sawyerr: Victim Of Betrayal And Political Backstabbing From Within
The embattled APC Mayor of the Freetown Municipality, Yvonne- Aki Sawyerr, has become the latest victim in the political crossfire between her very own APC party and the ruling SLPP.
I have listened to the original audio from the Mayor and the subsequent responses from various other quarters.
Say what you may, the mayor was betrayed and stabbed in the back by her own APC councillors who were present at that closed door meeting where she spoke confidently hoping that they were all on the same wave length. She was confident that she was speaking to her own people and that was why she spoke the way she did. In that infamous audio, the Mayor made derogatory statements against a particular tribe for which she has already tendered her unreserved apologies.
If one may ask, who amongst the APC councillors leaked that secret audio? Why did they leak it in the first place? What was their motive? What were they trying to achieve?
They say, there’s no brother in the army, so also, there’s no brother in politics. Politics is like dancing with the devil with your eyes closed. Because, for every mistake you make there’s someone to correct that mistake. That’s the game of backstabbing where there’s no penalty, no offside, no foul play and no standard rules.
Although it hasn’t been confirmed, but some say Mayor Aki Sawyerr has been rumoured to be working closely with Chief Sam Sumana who had promised to make her his running mate in 2023. Therefore, if those rumours are anything to go by, then there are all indications that Mayor Aki was a victim of APC political crossfire by opposing APC flag bearer operatives within the very Council she heads. Her detractors at the Council say she’s not in their camp and also fighting to promote herself by playing the Creole tribal card to become running mate to Chief Sam Sumana in 2023.
How close is Mayor Aki Sawyerr to former Vice President Chief Sam Sumana? That’s the million dollar question.
To add salt to injury, the government hasn’t taken the utterances of the Mayor lightly. The SLPP National Secretary General has catalogued a lengthy press release chronologically expounding on the audio which he claimed was thoroughly analyzed by experts to ascertain its veracity. As if that isn’t enough, a prominent legal luminary Augustine Sengbe Marah has called on the Mayor to tender her letter of resignation because according to him, she has lost the moral authority to occupy such a high profiled position that deserves high moral standards. The matter was brought to the international attention by our own Umaru Fofanah of the BBC fame who said all efforts to get the side of the mayor proved futile.
As the call for the Mayor’s resignation heightens, the APC has stood firmly behind their Mayor calling it a political witch hunt.
But for argument sake, is it possible for the government to ask the Mayor step down pending investigation? Political commentators recalled that in 2016, Mayor Emerson and his Deputy of the Koidu New Senbehum City Council were suspended pending investigation on an Audit Report. Also, Chairman Badara Oroko of the Waterloo Rural District Council was shown the exit door earlier before his term could expire.
Also, if precedent has been set at the highest level when former President Ernest Koroma fired his former Vice President Chief Sam Sumana, what does it mean for a small time Mayor to be shown the exit door, asked a senior political commentator?
Will Mayor Yvonne Aki Sawyerr survive the midst of this political crossfire? It’s only a matter of wait and see.
Mohamed Kakay, Senior Political Commentator
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