By Osman Kargbo

The Chairman of the Interim Transitional Governance Committee of the All People’s Congress (APC) party has disclosed his plan of action prior to the conduct of the party’s lower level elections and National Delegates’ conference to be soon held.

Speaking at a press conference organised by the ITGC, in the absence of about 14 members of the committee, at the APC Headquarter office at Old Railway Line on Saturday 8 October, Alfred Peter Conteh said:  “Comrades, let me use this opportunity to kindly inform you all that we have submitted the names of people that will be serving in the Transitional Interim Independent Election Management Committee (TIIEMC). Again, we are on the verge to transform this party to a modern-day democracy. You all may have heard about the ruling of the PPRC regarding the conduct of our party’s lower level elections that will lead us to our national delegate conference. These rules were drafted to guide us on the conduct of our lower level elections, and let me hasten to say we shall soon announce dates for the conduct of these elections.

“The good news we want to share with you regarding the process leading up to the conduct of these elections are: all those with issues relating to registration with the party shall be addressed before the conduct of these elections; there will be a representation of membership of our members and a compulsory verification of the 63,000 plus membership cards that were issued to our members but do not reflect on the database of the PPRC. Just after the completion of the verification and reregistration, we shall now announce dates for the conduct of the lower level elections that start from ward, constituency, district, regions and the national delegate conference.”

Whilst he  urged the interim district chairmen/persons to continue with the duties and responsibilities given to them by the ITGC, Mr Conteh said that one of the historic milestones of the ITGC was “the resolving of all unresolved membership disputes” within the APC party as directed by Justice Adrian Fisher on 28 April 2022.

He also said that their focus as a “responsible party and a government in waiting is to be in readiness to engage the government” in constructive dialogue on the trending political issues and the nation’s stability. This line of direction, he added, would be taken “in order to prepare” interested citizens, supporters, and existing members of their party for “the upcoming intra party registration in participation for the forthcoming lower-level elections”.

“As I conclude,” he says, “I want to encourage and urge all our members, supporters, and sympathizers of the APC party to be law-abiding and remain focused on the bigger picture to bring back our party to power come 2023.”

However, whilst Peter Conteh was making this pronouncement, the Secretary of the ITGC, Hon. Abdul Kargbo, had earlier twitted, saying that a large proportion of the committee members had “no knowledge” about the press conference / meeting, and referred to it as “arbitrariness”.

Hon. Kargbo said: “Media houses have called to confirm if the ITGC is hosting a Press Conference at the Party’s HQ tomorrow. I can confirm that 14 out of the 21 Members of the ITGC are not aware of any Press Conference. ITGC is not managed by 7 Members. Enough of arbitrariness in APC.”

The meeting, moderated by Publicity Committee head Bumneh Sulaimani, was attended by members such as former Hon Ibrahim Bundu, Lawyer Kalokoh (a standard bearer aspirant), fmr Hon. Emma Simbo Frazer, fmr Ambassador Alimamy Coleson Turay, Ajibu Jalloh Jnr and some interim chairmen and district representatives.

All of these committee members called for unity and oneness in the party, saying the APC is for all and not for certain people.

“Let’s leave the Court and go to Convention,” said to be the conference theme as stated by Ibrahim Bundu, a senior member of the APC. Having said this, none of the panelists or speakers mentioned anything about the brewing court matter between two of the committee members – lawyer Alpha M. Jalloh and Interim chair Peter Conteh – over contempt of court.