John Oponjo Benjamin, former chairman and leader of the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) has questioned the legality in office of the man who succeeded him as chairman and leader.
Whilst talking to the Awareness Times Newspaper on the night of Monday 10th April 2017, Mr. Benjamin referred to the entire national led executive of Chief Somano Kapen as “illegitimate persons.”
Mr. Benjamin said the decision of the Appeals Court of Sierra Leone to slam an injunction on the planned convention of the SLPP is a clear indication that the National Executives of Chief Somano Kapen have indeed outlived their tenure in office.
Therefore, he cited that the as per the SLPP 1995 constitution, Chief Kapen’s term as chairman and leader should have ended since late 2015. He said, as things stand, Chief Kapen hasn’t the legitimacy to take the SLPP to any convention for the election of its 2018 flagbearer candidate. Instead, he advised that, Kapen should focus on organizing a national delegate conference for the election of national executives of the party.
Hence, Mr. Benjamin said, “the SLPP must not have a flagbearer candidate without screening it national officers.”
It could be recalled that the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) was on Friday 7th April 2017, faced with another big blow when the Sierra Leone Appeals Court granted an interim interlocutory injunction restraining the National Executive Council of the party from organizing any meeting, including the much-anticipated April 22-25th SLPP All-delegates Convention for the Presidential Elections on March 7, 2018.
Against this backdrop, the Awareness Times Newspaper contacted the Party’s former chairman and leader to give his take on the injunction.
However, as a way of balance of story, all efforts to get on to Chief Kapen to react to accusations made against him by Mr. Benjamin did prove fruitless.
However, Awareness Times Newspaper will definitely publish his side in our subsequent edition.
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Newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone.