President Julius Maada Bio and SLPP Express Serious Displeasure over Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden’s Statements at Supreme Court – and Dr. Blyden says she now feels timid to speak.
By Awareness Times.
Honourable George Banda-Thomas Esq., and his Legal Team of 8 Lawyers, have today 25th February 2021, during hearings of the Consolidated Presidential Petition matter, formally complained First Petitioner Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden to the Supreme Court on behalf of His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio GCRSL and the governing Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP).
Apparently, the SLPP and President Bio are not happy with two issues. Firstly, Lawyer Banda Thomas Esq. said the President and the SLPP are unhappy with the statement of Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden OOR when she told the Supreme Court that she personally has Presidential Ambitions.
The renowned, veteran and highly respected senior legal luminary did not however go further in to the reason why his clients, in persons of the President and the SLPP, are upset with Dr. Blyden telling Supreme Court that she herself has presidential ambitions. He brought the displeasure of his clients to the attention of the Supreme Court.
Secondly, the lawyers say that their clients, President Bio and the SLPP, are unhappy with certain words used by Dr. Sylvia Blyden at the last adjourned date of February 22nd 2021 when she told the Supreme Court that in the year 2012, Supreme Court Justice Valesius Thomas picked up an “attempted smuggling” of a Section 127 constitutional interpretation matter in to an application under Section 45 by Julius Maada Bio, John Oponjo Benjamin and Dr. Kadi Sesay so the three of them were rebuked and chastised by the Supreme Court for such an attempt.
The lawyers said those orally spoken words of Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden to the Supreme Court, have now been picked up by the media. Lawyer George Banda-Thomas complained that his clients in persons of President Bio as 3rd Defendant and the SLPP as 4th Defendant, considered Blyden’s submissions, especially the use of the word “smuggling” as having a negative connotation and his clients (H.E. Bio and SLPP) felt offended at such a description. Lawyer George Banda-Thomas, on behalf of his clients, asked the Supreme Court to caution Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden. Dr. Sylvia Blyden in a brief reply said she cannot be blamed for the media picking up on her words in Court.
She said when the pro-SLPP media spent a lot of time reporting on the statements of Hon. Lawyer Banda Thomas against Blyden’s legal method of filing her petition case and for which issue the pro-SLPP media copiously cited the Justice Valesius Thomas ruling, “nobody complained”. About her presidential ambitions, Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden explained that the reason why she mentioned her presidential ambitions in open court was simple and it was done only one time and that was on the first day of her submissions when in making her submissions, she stated that she was not in Court for frivolous or vexatious reasons but because she did not want a repeat of what happened to Dr. Samura Kamara in 2018 to happen to her if her presidential ambitions come true and she contested elections one day. So she reminded of how she had explained that she approached the court exercising her rights as a citizen, in order to clear the air on the country’s cloudy jurisprudence around Presidential Elections and Petitions, before it reaches her turn to one day seek the Presidency some time in the future.
Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden openly pondered over the bitter complaint against her and said it will now make her quite timid to speak in Court. The Chief Justice had initially started to counsel Dr. Sylvia Blyden without listening to her own side. However, after Dr. Blyden appealed for her to be heard and after listening to both sides, the Chief Justice counselled both sides in the matter. The matter then continued successfully with legal submissions concerning the Petition itself (motion to strike out the petition) which submissions were made on behalf of the President and the SLPP by Banda-Thomas Esq. After few hours of hearing, the matter has now been adjourned to Tuesday March 2nd 2021 when Lawyer Banda-Thomas Esq. will conclude his final submissions.
The Chief Justice and Supreme Court Judges will then retire for Ruling on whether the Consolidated Petitions should be thrown out as requested by President Bio and the SLPP or whether they should be heard on their merits as requested by Dr. Sylvia Blyden, Dr. Samura Kamara and the APC.
