By Aminata Phidelia Allie
Plaintiff lawyer, in the ongoing constitutional crisis matter before the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone, has disagreed with the court’s decision to refuse their application to restrain Victor Bockarie Foh from functioning as Vice President.
Speaking to Politico, James Blyden Jenkins-Johnston representing the sacked Vice President, Alhaji Samuel Sam Sumana, said his team believedthat the injunction should have been granted.
The lead counsel said what they were doing was in the interest of the country and not for Sam Sumana as an individual, adding that it was necessary to keep a check on the government’s actions.
“As far as I am concerned, he was elected as Vice President of Sierra Leone by the people of Sierra Leone. As far as I am concerned he was removed from office by President Koroma in an unconstitutional and undemocratic manner,” the legal luminary said.
Judges of the country’s highest court on Tuesday refused to grant an application for an interlocutory injunction restraining Ambassador Foh from further occupying the office of the Vice President, citing public interest as a major factor which should be given considerable weight.
Acting Chief Justice, Valecious Thomas, said a vacancy in the office of the Vice President would do more harm to the state as the holder of that office performed constitutional functions which could not be performed by a minister.
Vice President Foh was appointed in early March following the dismissal of Sam Sumana by President Ernest Bai Koroma. That decision by the president sparked up huge debates both locally and internationally. Members of opposition parties, especially the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), demonstrated in and out of the country.
Sam Sumana had subsequently employed the services of some lawyers to challenge his sacking through the judiciary, hence the court case which started last month.
The SLPP, together with the People’s Movement for Democratic Change, have also filed a case of injunction with the Court and it is expected to start soon.
Meanwhile at the Jenkins-Johnston Law firm on Wellington Street in Freetown on Wednesday, the 68-year-old lawyer said as much as he was disappointed with the court’s decision against them, he was bound to accept it because the court was the highest and most powerful in the land.
“I believe they did not come to the right conclusion but that can only be my opinion,” he said.
Asked whether or not his faith in the Supreme Court had been shaken by Tuesday’s ruling, he responded: “I still have faith in the court, otherwise we wouldn’t have filed our case in the first place. We cannot afford to say we don’t trust the court.”
He, however, expressed hope that the court would see their point when the trial began proper next week. “But whatever the outcome it will be for history and posterity to judge us,” Jenkins-Johnston, who has been in the legal profession for over 40 years, said.
As to whether or not he still regarded Sam Sumana as Sierra Leone’s Vice President, he responded: “No, and that is because he has been removed by the president.” But he said he would not refer to him as the former VP either. Instead he would address the sacked Vice President as “Alhaji Sam Sumana,” officially or unofficially.
Opposition party officials seemed cautious in their response to the ruling. This may be, because the matter was now before a court of law and it would constitute prejudice to comment on it.
SLPP’s National Secretary General, Sulaiman Banja Tejan-Sie, told Politico that he was yet to see and read the ruling delivered by the five Supreme Court judges and so he could not comment on it. He said he had been informed that mistakes, likely grammatical, were being corrected in the ruling and the document would be out in the public by May 7.
As a lawyer, Tejan-Sie said he was minded to wait until he saw the original ruling because he could not depend on what he had seen and heard on the media.
PMDC’s chairman and leader, Charles Francis Margai also declined to comment, citing their injunction case before the court as a predominant reason.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of Center for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL), Ibrahim Tommy, urged the court to take a decision that the people of Sierra Leone would be able to live with, as they go into the substantive issues of the matter.
He said he would not say whether or not the plaintiff lawyers made a weak case for injunction but he was positive the rule of law was being followed.
“The court has made a ruling and we have to accept it,” Tommy said.
© Politico 07/05/15
