Legal luminaries have opined that the reason the government of Sierra Leone has failed to release the tribunal’s report into the investigation of the suspended Auditor General and her deputy, Lara Taylor-Pearce and Tamba Momoh respectively, is because the tribunal’s constitutional legitimacy was never determined by the Supreme Court.
The legality of the tribunal has once again been brought to the fore as the Supreme Court has repeatedly failed to assign this very significant constitutional and procedural law matter.
The refusal by the president and his government to release the report that was compiled against the set procedure is a case study on how the judiciary can be bullied into being the bulwark against the rules and procedures as stated in the Constitution of Sierra Leone.
The matter is most significant as it also touches on how sitting judges are to be and can be removed from office.
After repeated failure by the Chief Justice to assign the matter of the legality of the tribunal to be heard by the Supreme Court since the first application was filed by lawyer Roland S. V. Wright representing the suspended Auditor General Lara Taylor-Pearce dated 20 December 2021 to date the tribunal was allowed to carry out its investigation albeit against set procedures.
Now that they have ridden roughshod over the very law whose integrity they are supposed to uphold, the tribunal submitted their report to the president on 12 June 2024, which is now waiting to be submitted to the House of Parliament for a vote on the president’s decision to suspend Lara and her deputy Tamba Momoh, in a further effort to incorporate the Honourable Law Making House of Parliament into the bastardisation of its own laws.
Indeed the wheels of justice in Sierra Leone has been forced to run on punctured and flattened tyres, encouraged by the substantive legal authorities in the country: the Supreme Court and the House of Parliament.
But since this Sixth Parliament has from the onset set itself apart in terms of respect and strict adherence to the procedure of things, it is incumbent upon the Honourable Members to consider the impact to their image, integrity and legacy as they are to be expected to address this matter of significant impact on how they will be remembered and adjudged by this and future generations.
To his credit, the law office of Roland S. V. Wright, Lara’s solicitor or lawyer, has proven equal to the task in his approach to ensuring the procedures governing our governors are upheld.
From the onset of the matter, lawyer Wright has raised the issue of the procedures to be followed before the establishment of the tribunal including its make up or members and its terms of reference.
Starting with the authorities, Wright posited that the actions taken before the establishment, make up and terms of reference of the tribunal were ultra vires the constitution, which issues should have been addressed by the Supreme Court before the tribunal set out on its investigation.
Failing to get the appropriate response from the authorities, Wright filed an application dated 20 December 2021 for the Supreme Court to hear and determine on the matter, but the Chief Justice Babatunde Edwards failed to assign the matter for the court to hear and rule.
This refusal to date prompted the next logical step with Wright filing an action to put a halt to the tribunal’s investigation dated 12 March 2022 seeking to restrict the tribunal from proceeding until the constitutional issues had been dealt with and disposed of by the Supreme Court. Again they faced a legal roadblock as the matter was not assigned.
After the CJ was replaced the matter was reintroduced by lawyer Wright to the appointed CJ dated 12 March 2024, which was three months before the tribunal submitted its report to the president that Lara and her lawyers have not had the privilege, not even the public, to get to see.
All the applications to have the legality of the tribunal addressed have met the same fate to date, they were not assigned.
Now that it is expected that the report will be submitted to this Sixth House of Parliament to vote on Lara and Tamba’s suspension by the president based on the tribunal’s findings and recommendations, it has put lawyer Wright and others in a very restrictive position as they still do not have access to the tribunal’s report from which they can make their case at the Supreme Court.
In the interest of constitutional correctness, the people of Sierra Leone and others following this matter, together with lawyer Wright are calling on the August House headed by the Honourable Speaker and the astute Deputy Speaker to “in the name of constitutional and procedural correctness and for the sake of posterity, particularly as it is most undesirable for our revered Parliament to be asked to vote upon a report published and or produced by a tribunal whose constitutional validity is yet to be determined by the Supreme Court. Our Honourable Members of Parliament ought not to be seen participating in an exercise in which questions can later be raised as to the validity or otherwise of such an exercise”.
We the citizens of this land together with lawyer Wright “urge Mr Speaker to seriously consider requesting an opinion from the Supreme Court of the Republic of Sierra Leone on the constitutional issues raised above before requesting our Honourable Members of Parliament to vote so as to avoid setting a bad constitutional precedent for the future, particularly as these issues also touch and concern the constitutionally ‘entrenched’ procedures for the removal of Judges from office”.
For too long the wheels of justice in Sierra Leone has been forced to run on punctured or flattened tyres. Maybe this Sixth Parliament can see it running on serviceable and properly inflated tyres.
It must be noted here that the people of this land has been very impressed with the efforts of this Sixth Parliament in restoring the lost glory of the Honourable House of Parliament with their strict adherence to the procedures on how they address the Auditor General’s Reports which had been ignored for five years. Now the public hopes the House will do due diligence on the Lara Taylor-Pearce and Tamba Momoh tribunal matter.
