By Abu Shaw in London (05/03/2023)
President Julius Maada Bio’s APC party traitors are working overtime to impose the wrong person for the running mate job in the main opposition APC party.
The traitorous APC enemies in Sierra Leone and outside the country are hell-bent on interfering negatively in the selection of the APC running mate. These enemies are even promoting their own candidates and fiercely criticising others whom they did not admire. Conspicuously, the candidate who is getting the most stick is no other person than the indefatigable APC party parliamentary leader Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah popularly known as Chericoco. His baggage of goodies over the years especially when the APC party came to the opposition benches, is second to none in the APC party but the enemies are disregarding his goodies. (Photo: Samura and Chericoco team is a winning team).
Nevertheless, Chericoco has a herculean task to climb because his critics, though in the minimum, are relentlessly bombarding him helter-skelter for the running mate position. The good news for Chericoco however is the unwavering support he is getting from the most important sector of the APC party i.e. the APC Grassroots supporters who are fighting tooth and nail to convince the APC leader Dr Samura Kamara to appoint Chericoco instantly. Dr Samura Kamara, the APC leader, and 2023 flag bearer for the June 24 general and presidential elections is expected to announce his running mate shortly. Every sane observer knows that Dr Samura Kamara is not an ingrate. He knows the pivotal role Chericoco had played to bring him to the top and defend the APC party in times of distress.
But Dr Samura Kamara’s procrastination to appoint his running mate is causing more harm for the APC party than good. The earlier Dr Samura Kamara appoints the running mate the better. Though Samura is in a consultative mood with the APC National Advisory Council NAC, the highest advisory body of the APC party, the APC Grassroots and the wider membership are losing patience with the naming of the running mate. And their popular choice is Chericoco. However, the gap Dr Samura Kamara is leaving has been filled with more rumour mongers and distractors who are busy promoting different candidates while undermining other potential candidates. This is not good for the unity and peace of the APC.
Many prominent and unknown names have emerged to fill the APC running mate void. Popular names like Diana Konomanyi (former Local Government Minister), Madina Rahman (former Health Minister), Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr (former Mayor of Freetown City Council), Alhaji Sam Sumana (former Vice President), and unknown names like Alhaji Mohamed Kamara aka Jagaban, the so-called millionaire who suddenly emerged from the United States. Before Dr Samura Kamara was elected as the standard bearer during the Makeni National Delegate Convention, most APC party supporters wanted Chericoco to continue as running mate as they did in the 2018 general and presidential elections. Chericoco has many merits and the two main advantages are thus -. He is a Muslim and from the Fullah ethnic group which would automatically neutralise Maada Bio’s running mate Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh. (Photo: Jagaban and Aki-Sawyerr). 
Truly speaking, both Samura and Chericoco did marvelously well in that election because confirmed sources say they won the 2018 elections beating Maada Bio massively. But the intervention of the international community to have a regime change in Sierra Leone changed the political landscape after convincing former President Ernest Koroma and the winner Dr Samura Kamara to let go and President Bio whose SLPP party had threatened another war in the country if APC continues in power was declared the winner. The rest is history they say. Today, APC Grassroots supporters are demanding the same team continue. “There is no need to change a winning team,” APC Grassroots noted. The following reasons are enough to show that Chericoco deserves the running mate post. No contest.
First, Chericoco’s life was threatened by SLPP police when an irate OSD police officer shot Chericoco’s vehicle with teargas while waiting nearby for Dr Samura Kamara who was being interviewed by the corrupt SLPP government Anti-Corruption Commission ACC in Freetown. Secondly, Chericoco was the first APC politician to throw his support openly for Dr Samura Kamara’s candidature for flag-bearer. Thirdly, Chericoco played a pivotal role in the selection of the Members of Parliament as ordered by Justice Adrian Fisher that constituted the 21-Man APC Interim Committee IGTC which eventually paved the way for Dr Samura Kamara’s resurgence and by overcoming the traitorous Alfred Peter Conteh camp and other APC Trojan Horses. Most significantly, Chericoco is a very popular politician in Freetown his constituency, where the majority of parliamentary seats in the country are up for grabs.
Also, as the APC parliamentary leader, Chericoco’s unique role was properly utilised for the benefit of the APC party and Dr Samura Kamara in particular despite the innumerable hurdles created by the wicked SLPP government thugs to derail the APC. Most importantly, it was Chericoco who mobilised all the APC MPs, 59 in number to endorse Dr Samura Kamara before the vital National Delegate Convention in Makeni. These are all significant inroads that Chericoco did which surpasses everyone eyeing the running mate slot. Chericoco is the man who is supported wholeheartedly by the APC Grassroots supporters. They believe his allegiance and loyalty to the APC hierarchy are unique. “So, Dr Samura Kamara must choice Chericoco to make sure we have the same formidable team for the 2018 elections,” the APC Grassroots supporters have warned.
