A national advisory council member of the party and Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, said their secretary general, Osman Foday Yansanneh, had duly informed the CRC in a letter that they were not satisfied with the way certain views were captured and represented in the draft.
“My party has difficulties with some of the provisions in the draft and we have withdrawn our signature consistent with the secretary general’s earlier pronouncement,” he said, adding that key recommendations that were made during the committee’s nationwide consultation were not included in the final report.
A member of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party, SLPP, on the CRC Isata Jabbie Kabba had questioned the action of the APC, saying “they have been part of the process for three years, through and thorough debates and deliberations. So the big question is why now?”
Former leader and chairman of the SLPP and a member of the CRC, John Oponjo Benjamin, said the APC members on the committee had misled the president who initiated the idea to set up an independent body to review the constitution of Sierra Leone.
He added that his party would continue to support the process but said it the report was tampered with they too would reject any alterations as a consequence.
“Just like parliamentarians elected their speaker, so must the judges nominate their chief justice and the president must not be a supreme executive president,” he lamented, adding that those were issues they had discussed and reached an agreement on.
Civil society representative and a CRC member, Valnora Edwin, said the exigency of time would not permit the committee to reopen the discussion of the constitutional review process again.
The APC scribe had denied accusations from committee members that the ruling party wanted to delay the review process.
“We have to learn constructive lessons from other countries. When the constitutional review did not go according to the wishes of the majority in Ghana they are now in court, but Ghana went ahead with the election. The election is coming now without the constitution. It is not mandatory for us to approve the constitution. Mind you it would involve a referendum which is an entire election too,” he said.
