The former State House Chief of Staff, Dr Richard Konteh who is one of the aspiring candidates of the main opposition All People’s Congress flag bearer position for the approaching 2023 presidential elections, has said in Freetown that the APC is a law abiding party.
He made the statement whiles responding to questions from Samule Wise Bangura’s AYV TV Sunday 17th programme, during which he disclosed that none of the cases presented before the court of Sierra Leone has been heard by the judiciary, adding; “The APC is not engaged in any form of violence and if any evidence is found let the law take its course”.
Dr Konteh said that the APC has always condemned violence thus called on government and the international community to institute independent investigations into the mass killings of inmates at central prisons in Freetown.
He refuted claims by ruling party members and supporters that the former APC flag bearer Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara said that he will make the Sierra Leone People’s Party ungovernable. “Dr Samura Kamara never says he will make the SLPP ungovernable. We all listened to him and he dint say that though he never expected to lose the elections.”
Dr Konteh said that the APC has lost confidence in the Police and Judiciary reiterating that there is no way the APC could have gone to the Bintumani III conference on national unity, because the APC was never a part of the process.
He former president Dr Ernest Bai Koroma following the visit of vice president Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh reciprocated through a meeting with President Julius Maada Bio at State House, noting that it is very much unfortunate that the government is always blaming the APC party for not allowing them to govern.
Dr Konteh said that the APC party does not have the power to stop the ruling SLPP from governing the country for they have all what it takes to deliver on their vows to the people of this country as in accordance with their 2018 presidential elections campaign manifesto.
On the front of peace and national unity, Dr Konteh replied that his party is fully committed to peace and national unity in Sierra Leone; “because we are a government in waiting”.
Speaking on efforts by his party’s leadership role in the continuing global coronavirus pandemic battle, Dr Konteh disclosed that former president Koroma who happens to the be the chairman and leader of the APC is actively involved in the sensitization of communities within his neighbourhoods in Makeni about the danger of the pandemic and how they can be prevented from getting infected.
He said his party promoted youth empowerment through multiple programmes as political appointments of young to strategic positions in government. The former State House Chief of Staff said during the deadly Ebola virus disease outbreak the last administration was able to paid salaries to all health workers and grant-in-aid to all public university students.
Dr Konteh therefore called on all to join government in the fight against the global and national efforts to defeat the COVID 19 pandemic in Sierra Leone and move forward as a nation.
Prior to his appointment as Chief of Staff at State House Dr Richard Konteh had initially served in the last Koroma led APC administration as deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Minister of Trade and Industry where in graciously formulated the revenue mobilization Goods and Service Tax-GST policy.
