By Jane B. Mansaray.
High Court Judge, Justice Adrian Fisher in a ruling delivered yesterday, ordered the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party to summon an emergency National Delegates’ Conference to adopt the party`s revised and amended 1995 Constitution.
The Judge further restrained the National Advisory Committee (NAC) of the APC from taking part in voting during the emergency National Delegates’ Conference scheduled to take place within one hundred and twenty days, effective the date of the ruling.
Other executive members including the APC National Secretary General, Assistant Secretary General, Publicity Secretary, Assistant Publicity Secretary, National Organising Secretary, the five Regional Chairmen, sixteen (16) District Chairmen and all the one hundred and thirty two (132) Constituency Chairmen are exempt from voting during the emergency National Delegates’ Conference declared by the court.
The Judge went on to refuse the application and objections to strike out the originating notice of motion dated 28th January 2021 and the interim injunction order, dated 26th February 2021.
According to Justice Adrian Fisher, the fourth defendant (the Political Parties Registration Commission) shall supervise the conduct of the delegates’ conference with a list of delegates to be submitted by the APC within twenty-one days.
The Judge also ordered the second defendant, Alhaji Osman Foday Yansaneh to pay Five Million Leones to the Plaintiff, Alfred Peter Conteh.
“There are serious pending issues in the plaintiff’s case which the court has to determine…I thereby rule that the injunction continues, pending hearing and determination of the substantive matter before the court,” Justice Fisher ordered.
Out of fifteen orders delivered by Justice Adrian Fisher, two were challenged by the first defendant, former President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma`s legal representative, Mr. Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara.
The two orders include; the enlargement of time from sixty days as prior order to one hundred and twenty days and the issue of disenfranchisement of the above categories of persons.
The enlargement of time was reviewed, while the second order of disenfranchisement will be appealed against by Lawyer Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara.
Alfred Peter Conteh is before the High Court seeking redress and remedy, challenging the illegal positions occupied by Former President Ernest Bai Koroma, Ambassador Osman Foday Yansaneh as National Secretary General in the APC party and the role of the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC).
