By Kabs Kanu
It was another day of stunning drama in Sierra Leone yesterday as the Sierra Leone Bar Association was surprisingly blocked from entering the premises of the Bintumani International Conference Centre to stage their annual general meeting . Armed Police created barricades at the entrance to stop the lawyers from accessing the conference Centre. Police said they were acting from orders above.
Assistant Inspector General Sylvester Koroma, Regional Commander of Freetown West, told stunned lawyers that they would not be able to enter “due to circumstances beyond our control “. There was considerable fraying of tempers from lawyers and their leaders , including the President of the Bar Association, Mrs. Tuma Gento Kamara and the Public Relations Officer, Mr. Alfred Kamanda, who burst into tears afterwards and even announced his resignation.
Alfred Kamanda accused the government of President Julius Maada Bio of interfering in the affairs of the association including the recent Kenema elections. Ranted Kamanda : “’Does the government want to interfere in this process again, as they have done in the past? That’s completely wrong. “
Political observers opined on Facebook that it was political interference writ large and that the Tuma Gento Kamara team had fallen out of favor with the ruling SLPP government, and that the government’s preferred candidate for the Bar elections for the presidency is Lawyer Martina Egbenda, a young legal practitioner who recently emerged to challenge the leadership of Tuma Gento Kamara.
TOMBO MEDIA Engagement Blog opined : “Let me cast my net on this . How did Tuma Gento lose the backing of the country’s major power brokers? Before the election in Kenema, her husband, Gento, stood firmly by her side; the First Lady even danced publicly to celebrate her victory; and Ben Kelfala offered her strong, vocal support. Yet, despite this united front, all of them eventually distanced themselves and left her to fend alone. What triggered this sudden withdrawal? This election cycle has perfectly revealed that she has genuinely strained relationships with several key figures. From where I stand, I think it’s about time she went back to the boardroom and stitch her relationship with them, otherwise she’ll find it challenging to clinch any big position in this country.”
The public said that what goes around comes around. Two years ago, the Police blocked the Kenema highway in favor of the Tuma Gento Kamara team to prevent her rival for the presidency then, Lawyer from accessing the hall where the 2024 annual general meeting was being held. This led to a big split in the Bar Association , giving rise o the formation o aerial group called the Sierra Leone Law Society.
The Sierra Leone Law Society—officially operating as The Lawyers’ Society—is an alternative, non-profit professional association for lawyers founded following disputed elections within the traditional Sierra Leone Bar Association (SLBA). Its key leadership figures include Augustine Sorie-Sengbe Marrah as President and Wara Serry-Kamal as Vice President. Yesterday, a gleeful Law Society posted the following on social media :
The SLBA released the following statement :
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