By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Rights defenders have slammed the Sierra Leone parliament for seeking to silence critical voices, warning that its move goes against the spirit of democratic principles and threatens to revers gains made by the country in ensuring accountability in governance.
The Human Rights Defenders Network Sierra Leone (HRDNSL) on Friday expressed support for two civil society organizations which are under the spotlight for reports they authored pointing to the alleged prevalence of corruption in the House of parliament.
The Center for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL) and the Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) in their reports consistently showed that Parliamentarians were among the most corrupt public servants. They also revealed a drastic drop in public confidence in the lawmaking institution over the last two years.
The House leadership last week challenged the two reports and called out the authors in statements described by rights campaigners as amounting to threats against the leaders of the two institutions.
The Parliament labeled the findings as “false” and “misleading”.
The Speaker of Parliament, Dr Abass Bundu, was quoted in a statement at a press briefing threatening the heads of IGR and CARL of facing contempt charges if they failed to provide proof of corruption in the House.
“We […] challenge both CARL and Afro Barometer and all their financiers to bring forth evidence to substantiate their allegations or else run the risk of being found guilty of contempt of Parliament with all its attendant consequences,” Bundu said.
Afro Barometer, a pan-African research initiative, is represented locally by IGR, which conducted its latest research.
In a press briefing on Friday, the HRDNSL, which is a coalition of rights groups defending rights defender, expressed disappointment and said it was concerned by the remarks of the Speaker.
“The Human Rights Defenders Network is disturbed by the threats and intimidation issued by the Speaker and leadership of the Sierra Leone Parliament…,” it said.
“We strongly believe that calling citizens to account for their opinion is a new threat to human rights that will further shrink the democratic space,” it added.
HRDNSL in its statement blamed the outcomes of the studies by the two institutions on the systemic pattern of corruption allegations and attempts to muzzle critical voices by Parliament.
Chairman of the coalition, Solomon Sogbandi, told reporters that their position is a response to what Parliamentarians had done over the years to silence critical voices in the civil society space.
“The issue is not just about Parliament. It is about successive parliaments. In 2014 we all could recall when the Mayor of Kenema accused parliament of corruption because they demanded bribe to pass his city’s budget. He was dragged to the ACC and Kenema’s budget was not approved for up to six months,” Sogbandi said.
The coalition’s press statement also noted another instance in 2014 when another activist, Abdul Fatorma, was dragged before Parliament for expressing concerns about MPs and the misuse of the Ebola funds.
“In 2016, the Leader of Government business then also dismissed the Auditor General’s report as a mere opinion,” Alphonso Gbanie, the Executive Secretary of HRDNSL, added.
The position of the network is bound to attract attention from lawmakers at Tower Hill. But Sogbandi said their stance is not meant to be confrontational.
“We are just raising the issues; we expect Parliament to take time and do some retrospection on some of these issues,” he said.
John Paul Bai, another member of the human rights coalition, added: “This is a wakeup call that Parliament must take very seriously. They must be accountable to the people.”
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