By Alpha Abu
Two political figures representing opposing factions with the Interim Transitional Governing Committee (ITGC) of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party have traded bitter accusations in what appears to be a widening of the intra-party rift.
Speaking to Politico, Sulaiman Bumneh Kamara who is the Publicity Head of the committee accused the Secretary Abdul Kargbo of running a parallel group thereby undermining the Chairman of ITGC, Alfred Peter Conteh.
He said Kargbo has refused to cooperate with the chairman so that funds can be accessed from the party’s account for the committee to carry out its activities.
He also accused the PPRC chairman Abdulai Masiambay Bangura of supporting the emergence of a parallel administration within the 21 man committee and addressing Kargbo as National Secretary-General of the APC when there is at present no such a position except the committee’s secretary position.
“Administratively the chairman is the head of any organisation and correspondences are usually directed to the substantive holder of that position”, and said the PPRC has been sending correspondences to the Chairman and secretary.
He said Kargbo has been declining invitation by the chairman to meetings and instead initiating his own which have coincided with those of Conteh.
He claimed Kargbo unilaterally went to the party office and removed the machine used for printing of party membership cards and said they’ve been told Kargbo has been printing membership cards.
He said the secretary has been queried thrice, copies of which were forwarded to the PPRC but that no action was ever taken.
He said whenever Kargbo presents issues to the PPRC, they are taken seriously and theirs ignored. He accused the PPRC of giving Kargbo undue importance over the chairman by throwing his support behind him whenever contacted by the Police. He said that has led to Conteh’s requests for permission to go on national tours, being turned down by the Police. “The Police have completely halted the process’’, he complained.
He said they’ve made their displeasure known in meetings with the Inspector General of Police whom he said has instead asked them to go back to the PPRC.
He said the commission has no leverage over what was a court order interpreted by the Judge and upon which the chairman is acting upon.
On what was being done to bring an end to the rift, Kamara said religious leaders have made attempts to settle the differences. He said chairman Conteh has made several peace overtures, offering invites to meetings that he claimed have been rebuffed by Kargbo and his followers.
He said he has personally made phone calls to them so they could attend meetings with no success.
‘’The old Executive and the party’s leadership in Parliament are the ones supporting Kargbo’s faction with the belief that they own the people. They are sending out wrong messages to party supporters that Conteh and his followers are being sponsored by the Sierra Leone People’s Party to destabilise the APC’’, he alleged.
Kamara said they are two steps away from the party’s national delegates conference and that serious preparations are underway for registration of members. “ We cannot allow few people to hold this party to ransom whilst they move about propagating bad and negative news about us’’, Kamara asserted.
He said they are going ahead and it is only the judge who can tell them that what they’re doing is wrong.
“ It wasn’t the APC that gave us a job it is a court order and that there strong penalties such as forfeiture of assets should we be found culpable of defaulting.I think the old guard don’t’ want things to progress because they have certain interests they want to protect’’, he claimed.
He said their focus now is to resolve the contentious issue of the party’s membership which he alleged the former executive failed to do despite a court order in 2021 that saw the then Secretary General Osman Yansaneh fined 30 million Leones.
He said the other faction is bringing up the matter of former Vice President Alhaji Sam Sumana which he stated was an unresolved membership issue that they have now addressed.
He said there are many other people whose membership status have been equally resolved but that Sumana’s membership has been placed in the hornet’s nest by the other faction.
‘’Our decision to accept Sam Sumana into our fold is not intended to make him flagbearer, we only wanted an open and level playing field’’, he stated.
He said the past membership registration by the former Secretary General was very corrupt and that this time they will have a biometric process .
In his reaction the ITGC secretary pointed out that in the context of the prevailing situation, the party’s constitution does not hold and that the ITGC is expected to go by the Court order and as such the simple majority highlighted by the judge in the ruling must take precedence in any decision by the committee.
He claimed Conteh has disregarded the court order and overturned the decisions taken by the majority.
“I am bound to take instructions from the simple majority than the chairman”, he affirmed.
On the planned membership registration by the chairman and co, Kargbo said they have no legal basis to undertake that.
He accused Conteh’s faction of insincerity and claimed they continue to hinge on the party’s National Advisory Council’s one –third quorum which he said is non-existent at this material time.
He said it is impossible for him as secretary to append his signature for access to the party’s account on the directive of only seven members within the committee which contravenes the court order.
He said Conteh’s faction take decisions at the place of a party figure named Ibrahim Bundus instead of doing so at the party office.
Responding to accusation that they are working for the former executive, Kargbo countered: “They have clearly shown they are working for Sam Sumana’’.
On the statement by Kamara that they will be starting registering members , Kargbo said they will be making an announcement this week for party supporters not to comply with the Conteh faction saying the process will not be recognised by the party.
He said hopefully the court will decide this week on the issues related to party’s progression ahead of the 2023 elections. He accused Conteh and his team of deliberately accommodating Sam Sumana to scupper the party’s participation in the 2023 polls, knowing fully that someone might take the party to court on the eve of the elections because the court clearly says that for members expelled they can only be reinstated at the national delegates’ conference.
PPRC Chairman Bangura has recently told journalists that the rift within the ITGC if not settled would jeopardise APC’s competitiveness in the general elections.
We tried to reach the PPRC chairman through his communication officer but we were unsuccessful. Following a protracted court battle , it was ordered that ITGC takes up temporary control of the APC’s day to day affairs .
Copyright (09/11/22)
