Last Thursday, President Maada Bio refused to see leaders of the newly-formed Consortium of Opposition Political parties who had gone to State House to deliver him a letter in connection with the clash in Parliament between the opposition MPs and ruling party parliamentarians.
According to reports , the opposition leaders were humiliated and manhandled by presidential security guards at State House.
It must be recalled that on April 19, parliamentarians belonging to the opposition and the ruling party had a serious altercation during an emergency parliamentary sitting summoned by President Bio when the opposition accused the ruling SLPP of ignoring the constitution and the rule of law, and attempting to bulldoze their way to force the tabling of documents for a midterm census, titled The Census Act 2002 (Act No. 14 of 2002), Statutory Instrument No. 4 of 2021 , that all the opposition parties had opposed .
The Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Chernor R.M Bah citing Standing Order 4(3) protested that there had been no consultations prior to calling the emergency sitting of Parliament. The Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Abass Chernor Bundu, ruled against him that Section 86 (1) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone regarding same takes precedent over provisions in the Standing Orders of Parliament.
OPPOSITION LEADERS MARCHING TO STATE HOUSE
There was a fracas with the opposition refusing to have the instrument tabled , though it was done by the Attorney General, Anthony Brewah, later.
The major opposition Political Parties in Sierra Leone comprised of NGC, APC, C4C, Unity Party & seven others paid a courtesy visit at State House – Freetown to discuss with President Bio matters arising from the Cybercrime Bill and Mid-Term Census , which they had opposed.
President Bio refused to see them and leaders complained later in a brief statement (Below ) that they were humiliated.
