By Hassan Osman Kargbo
The All People’s Congress – APC has reiterated their insistence on the re-run of the flawed June 24 presidential elections.
The main opposition party Monday 14 August 2023 recapped their position on the continuing boycott of governance and called for the re-run of presidential polls during a meeting hosted at the APC party secretariat in Freetown with the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL).
IRCSL was at the APC party headquarter on what they described as a fact-finding mission, aimed at promoting peace and national cohesion in the country, for which the Council engaged the National Executive of the APC.
Speaking during the deliberations with APC key players, the IRCSL vice president and head of delegation, Alhaji Murtada Sesay, told the opposition party executive that they are on a fact-finding mission to get their side on the one hand and on the other, the stands of the APC party in relation to the outcome of the June 24 presidential election results.
National Secretary General of IRCSL, Reverend Jesse Forna, underscored the significance of their visit to the APC party headquarter saying that it is important and timely in helping them finds durable and timely solution to the current political impasses in the country.
‘Our coming here is important and I believe it can better guide us as we work towards finding ways of solving the current political impasses in the country,’ he said.
Reverend Forna told the APC party hierarchy that they have met with other institutions that he noted are key players in the June 24 polls. The APC is not the only institution that we had engaged in relation to the outcome of the June 24 polls, he stressed.
‘Our organization have met with other institutions such as the Office of the National Security (ONS), and the Election Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL), just to get their own view in relation to the June 24 presidential result, so, it is necessary to hear from the APC Executive,’ he justified.
Rev Forna informed the APC executive that the Inter-Religious Council was not at their secretariat to negotiate the party’s positions on their stands for not participating in governance, but as part of their consultative meeting with stakeholders across the country.
‘Today’s meeting is part of our wider consultations we are having with stakeholders across the country, and not a negotiation on the current position of the party in relating to the non-participation in governance,’ he stated.
Welcoming the ICRSL delegation, the National Chairman Hon Alhaji Minkalu Mansaray and the National Deputy Chairman, Alhaji Ambassador Osman Foday Yansaneh profusely thanked the ICRSL Executive for their visit but however, reiterated the APC party position for not partaking in any governance systems in the country.
Speaking in an interview with a popular community radio host Kamal M. Barrie in Kenema, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Sidi Yaya Tunis said the position of the APC has still not changed even though the party continue to have dialogue engagements with from members of the diplomatic community and the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone. Alhaji Tunis disclosed that there are specific government institutions including the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone, the Office of National Security, the Judiciary of Sierra Leone among others who owe accountability obligations to the public for their professional misconducts prior, during and even after the elections. He said the APC position has nothing to with government neither President Julius Maada Bio, pointing out that the party’s stands is also aimed at ending the culture of impunity especially in the discharged of the duties of security personnel and other top public officers. The APC Spokesman reiterated actions must be taken to end the culture of impunity.
