By Aminata Phidelia Allie
Members of the National Democratic Alliance were disappointed yesterday after the high court failed to give a ruling in their matter which has dragged on for weeks and has almost certainly cost the party a chance to field in a presidential candidate in the 17 November elections.
Counsel for the complainant in the matter between the party and its expelled member Pateh Bah yesterday told Justice Abdulai Charm at the High Courts in Freetown that Sierra Leone will not condone “the illegality of the NDA party”.
While making his closing statement in the month-long case, Leon Jenkins-Johnston said that the case was “simple, clear and straightforward”. It is about rights, especially that of Pateh Bah and a party that does not practice what it preaches. It preaches democracy but does the most undemocratic things possible.”
Quoting the parties constitution, Jenkins-Johnston said that a presidential candidate and his running-mate must be elected at a National Delegates’ Conference. “Elected, not appointed”, he emphasised.
He added that the party had contravened its own constitution but did not want to bear the consequences, adding that it was a party without a leader. “If they insisted that they had convened a delegates’ conference, let them tell us when and where it happened,” he challenged.
He pleaded with the court to ensure that until a delegates’ conference was held, the NDA should have no business with the elections. He advised the party to call on the National Electoral Commission and the Political Parties Registration Commission to help them organise a delegates’ conference, which he referred to as the only correct and expedient thing to do.
“As it is the whole executive and everything it represents is illegal,” he said.
Chernor Alpha Bah, spokesman for the party, said that for anyone to say that the national executive was illegal, they must first consider the fact that Pateh Bah's membership was endorsed by the same “illegal executive.” He added: “If the legality of the executive is under question then his membership should also be questioned because he was endorsed by an illegal executive.”
He said that they would wait for the court’s verdict because only then would they know what to say and to whom.
Chairman of the party, Sylvanus Kanyako, said that the lawyer was only saying what he had been told because as far as he was concerned Jenkins-Johnston was not a member of the party and did not know what happened therein.
He said the judge’s refusal to pass a judgment on the matter yesterday was nothing but a show of partiality because both sides had completed their submissions and it was only proper that he should have passed a judgment yesterday.
