APC SPOKESMAN SIDI YAYA TUNIS HAS NOT COMMITTED A CRIMINAL OFFENCE AND SHOULD REJECT THIS MORNING’S CID INVITATION
By Kabs Kanu
The Criminal Libel and Sedition components of the 1965 Public Order Act have been expunged by the Sierrra Leone Parliament and libel – whether the alleged defamation is oral or written—can no longer be a criminal offence. It is now a civil offence.
Therefore, the invitation of the APC official, Sidi Yaya Tunis to the CID this morning by the Sierra Leone Police for alleged incendiary statements made during a radio interview in Freetown, is unlawful and unconstitutional and should not be honored by the APC spokesman. Neither Mr.Tunis nor Secretary General Osman Yansaneh should appear at the CID. Citizens have a legal right not to submit themselves to any illegal or unlawful case or inquiry.
You cannot charge a man for a crime that does not exist. The crime allegedly committed must be explicitly stated in the statutes and law books. As it is, criminal libel no longer exists in Sierra Leone. Therefore, Mr. Tunis has no business with the CID.
If President Bio and his government believe that the statements made by Mr. Tunis to the media are inflammatory and inciting, they must seek a civil recourse.
President Bio himself signed into law the amended Public Order Act 1965 which repealed the Seditious Libel section that criminalized free speech. Criminal libel and sedition do not exist anymore in Sierra Leone. Part 5 of the Public Order Act 1965 which held the laws of criminal libel and sedition has been removed.
The garrulous and ignorant Inspector General of Police, Ambrose Sovula, has embarrassed the SLPP government again and should be given the boot.
What a shame that President Bio’s IG does not know that free speech is no longer a crime in Sierra Leone.
Is this the President that the morally bankrupt African Union ( AU ) was alleged to have described as a champion of democracy and the rule of law ?
