By Kemo Cham
The parliament of Sierra Leone has suspended four lawmakers pending investigation over various alleged offences levied against them.
The suspended lawmakers include former chairman of the Legislative Committee, Hindolo Gevaio and Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, famous for resigning on a live parliamentary hearing in protest against alleged interference into his work by the leadership of the House.
The other two MPs facing disciplinary action are Momoh Bockarie and Mohamed Billoh Shaw.
A spokesman for the parliament said the decision to suspend the men was reached through a motion adopted by MPs on Tuesday.
Sheku Turay, Deputy Director of Communications in the House, told Politico that the motion was proposed by the majority leader in parliament, Sahr Matthew Nyuma, and seconded by the minority leader, Cherno Maju Bah.
According to details of the motion, while Gevao and Conteh are being investigated for allegations they raised against the parliament, which allegedly brought its reputation to question, the other two MPs were fingered for engaging in personal feud with fellow MPs.
Hon. Bockarie of Constituency 012 is accused of intimidation and abuse of a fellow MP, while Hon. Shaw of Constituency 039 is accused of indecent and derogatory text message directed at a fellow MP.
Hon. Gevao, who represents Constituency 003, offended his fellow MPs when he granted an interview with the BBC, alleging that parliament was corrupt. His comment was made in the context of a damning report by the accountability campaign group, the Center for Accountability and Rule of Law, which ranked parliament among the most corrupt institutions in the country.
Conteh, who represents Constituency 132, offended the leadership of the House when he accused them of arm twisting him as chairman of the Transparency and Accountability Committee. The lawmaker said he received calls while on a live broadcast questioning session of public officials and told to act contrary to what his conscience could allow him to do.
“These actions and utterances at different occasions breach parliamentary privileges and ethics, contrary to section 97A of Act Number 6 of the 1991 Constitution,” said Turay.
He added that with the motion, the men were referred to the Committee of Privileges and Ethics. This committee, he noted, would investigate them and submit a report of its findings to the House for further action.
Turay declined to comment on the possible action the House will eventually take if the men are found guilty. He stressed that they are currently being treated as innocent until proven guilty.
All four men, according to the parliamentary spokesman, will be exempted from participating on all parliamentary affairs relating to committee issues until the investigations on them are concluded.
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