By Francis H. Murray
A judge in Freetown has lifted an injunction on the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) party holding their delegate’s conference which was halted at the last minute in January 2020.
In his ruling on Thursday 25th February 2021, Justice Komba Kamanda stated that because the affidavit of Alffred Minkailu Koroma, being the 1st Plaintiff and only deponent of it didn’t clearly state the party or parties that gave the authority, he couldn’t consider it as a joint affidavit.
He said: “In my considered view, to merely state that ‘I am duly authorized to make this affidavit’ without clearly stating the party or parties that gave the authority is fatal…the court cannot infer for the parities.”
Justice Kamanda noted that: “with the discontinuance of the 1st Plaintiff, the only deponent to the affidavit, the originating notice of motion herein has no leg to stand because it is no longer supported by an affidavit. In this circumstance, I order that originating notice of motion herein dated 15th January 2020 is hereby struck out and that the injunction hereinto granted by this court in respect of this matter is hereby vacated.’’
The ruling follows a jurisdictional objection submitted by lawyers for the APC who argued that because one of those who brought the original case to the High Court refused to fall in line with his other two colleagues to discontinue their case against the party, the application had no leg to stand on.
On Monday 22nd February 2021, Lawyer Ady Macauley argued that there was no application or action before the court and that the case for the 3rd Plaintiff should not stand on its own because it had no supporting affidavit.
In his response to that objection, Lawyer Hindolo Gevao who represented Sulaimani Kamara being the only substantive applicant remaining in the matter told the court that the affidavit of Koroma was filed with the authority of the other plaintiffs, which makes the action of his client viable and legitimate before the court.
Following the ruling, the Party’s National Secretary General Ambassador Osman Foday Yansaneh said: “As a party, I think we’ve been vindicated and we also believe that our approach to the issue has been constructive. We were lambasted, called all sorts of names by the Plaintiffs but we didn’t react. As young people, we believe that they should learn to be patient but their idea of just coming to dismantle a party because they believe they’re aggrieved that we had wronged them was our concern.’’
He said that the party’s leadership had agreed to most of what the plaintiffs were asking for, including the removal of the consultation and selection instead of election clause and they also signed a memorandum to show that they operated in good faith.
Yansaneh stressed that the APC was now ready to face the ruling SLPP in the 2022 local council election and the general elections a year later. He said his party’s National Advisory Committee would meet and issue a new date for their convention.
The NRM presents itself as a pressure group within the APC seeking sweeping reforms within the party. The group brought the court action against the leadership of the APC which includes Osman Foday Yansaneh and Ernest Bai Koroma. The injunction halted a mini convention of the party that was scheduled to take place in Portloko in January 2020.
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