SLPP accused of underminig the Justice System and the constitution in Sierra Leone

Written by Joseph Kamanda Monday, 12 October 2009 00:17 (Cocorioko outlet)

Following the submission of the Report of the Rape Commission of Enquiry to government, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), has come out clearly to undermine  the justice system and the credibility of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone by publicly discrediting the work of the commission. In several media reports,  the National Chairman of the SLPP,  John Oponjo Benjamin,  has said that his party is not satisfied with the Report. In response to all these,  the Deputy Minister of Information and Communication,  Haja Saidata Sesay, Thursday 8th October 2009 fired back saying that there are certain people in the country who are deliberately undermining the credibility of the constitution for want of political gains and cheap popularity.

“The SLPP members are going round discrediting the Commission of Enquiry into the alleged rape matter that it did not do its work objectively”, she said.

 The Deputy Minister charged the party with tampering with dignity of Sierra Leonean women by subjecting them to voluntarily become rape victims in order for their leaders to unsuccessfully score political goals.For their own selfish and narrow interests, the SLPP has no scruples to use innocent women to lie that they were raped just to tarnish the name of the APC Government. 

 From the political front, Alhaji Alpha Kanu, Minister of Mines,Mineral Resources and Political Affairs, said the commission was set up in partnership with executive members of the SLPP in the persons of Chairman John Benjamin, Isata kabbah, Secretary General Jacob Jusu Saffa and others who agreed to choose members of the Rape Commission, which was headed by a very senior Judge-Justice Bankole Thomson.

 According the Political Affairs Minister, political campaigns came to an end in September 2007 when President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma was declared by the National Electoral Commission as the duly elected President of Sierra Leone.

 “These people want to be political leaders at all cost but they don’t have the platform so  they should be looking for a by-election elsewhere-maybe in Kenema in which we are going to defeat them hands down .We call on the SLPP take a more responsible opposition role in Sierra Leone”, he admonished.