By Department of Public Relations, Parliament of Sierra Leone
The Parliament of Sierra Leone yesterday 21st July 2021 carried a dilatory motion moved and seconded by the Leaders of Government Business and the Opposition, Hon. Mathew Sahr Nyuma and Hon. Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah respectively, to Friday 23rd July 2021.
The postponement is to accommodate more inputs from interested parties for consideration before a decision could be reached by Parliament on the Bill entitled: “The Abolition of the Death Penalty Act, 2021”.
In respect of the deferral of debate on the said Bill, the Parliament of Sierra Leone apologized profusely to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Anthony Y. Brewah, who was supposed to attend Cabinet, but came to Parliament for continued debate on the abolition of the death penalty.
Following a call made by Parliament regarding inputs on the abolition of the death penalty by Civil Society and Human Rights Organizations, but due to late submissions of same, the Parliament has bent backwards by postponing further debate on the said Bill to Friday 23rd July 2021 to accommodate more inputs latest today 21/07/2021 to give MPs ample time to consider their views during the course of repealing and replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment for convicted persons for grave crimes including murder, mutiny, treason and robbery with aggravation.
In light of the people’s Parliament, Leaders of Government Business, the main Opposition, C4C and NGC agreed in a general consensus that debate on the abolition of the death penalty be deferred to accommodate additional public inputs before a decision could be reached by Parliament, judging on its sensitivity in light of public interest.
The Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Dr. Abass Chernor Bundu agreed with the Leaders and read out four inputs received lately from AdvocAid, Amnesty international and two others, and called on others to submit theirs latest today for consideration by Parliament.
Representatives from the European Union and the British High Commission were recognized by the Speaker of Parliament.
