Ady Macaulay, the Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission, has been served with a letter issued from the Office of the President requesting him to proceed on “Special Leave” with no return date.
Sierra Leone bemoans the comatose state of the Rule of Law and belief in due process.
The position of Commissioner is provided for under the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008. An Independent Office that is not subject to the control or direction of anyone (including but not limited to the Executive).
While the independence is not absolute, there is a modicum endowed on its functional and operational independence. Such an action by the Executive, has hung the sword of Damocles over the unsuspecting Head of the ACC.
The mode of suspension, removal or dismissal and even disciplinary measures are clearly spelt out in the Act cited above. Nowhere is there any reference to “Special Leave”. Thus the purport and terms of the Letter issued from State House is contradictory to the Statute, making it null and void.
The brazen attempts to dovetail, circumvent and undermine the law has become a popular penchant of the Executive. We see the case of the Speaker, forceful suspensions of valid legislations and imposition of law without Parliamentary authority signalling the herald of Rule without law. Seemingly, the lives of our people are now bound in shallows and miseries.
Even the unceremonious dismissal of the erstwhile Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, have not gone without notice and this action posits a smirk of autocracy.
The writing is glaringly clear on the wall, the misdirection of the New Direction!
