The former Member of Parliament, representing the people of Cons. 049 now 075 in the Port Loko District, for the All Peoples Congress (APC) party, Honorable Alhaji Seray Dumbuya has lamented that maintaining Section 77.1.K in the Constitution of Sierra Leone Act No.6 of 1991 is absolutely wrong and it stopping. He said ” How can over forty thousand people elect you to parliament and then a single individual or group of individuals can have the power to remove you,” He was speaking in an exclusive interview with this Press while reflecting on the life and works of a former critical colleague, the late Honorable Hassan Sheriff
Hon. Dumbuya said, citing that “Section 77.1.k and I in the Constitution of Sierra Leone Act No.6 of 1991 is a bad law that needs review if the fullest of the potentials of lawmakers is to be harnessed,” Hon. Dumbuya said.
He pointed out that Section 77 (Tenure of MPs).1.k and l of the Sierra Leone Constitution stipulates that “A Member of Parliament shall vacate his seat in Parliament -h. if he ceases to be a member of the political party of which he was a member at the time of his election to Parliament and he so informs the Speaker.
“Or the Speaker is so informed by the Leader of that political party; or i. if by his conduct in Parliament by sitting and voting with members of a different party, the Speaker is satisfied after consultation with the Leader of that Member’s party that the Member is no longer a member of the political party under whose symbol he was elected to Parliament”
he narrated.
This according to Hon. Dumbuya is an impairment of lawmakers from seeking the genuine national interest above party, noting that the section is a limitation on the ability of MPs to put the interest of the nation above partisan sentiments. He explained that a number of firebrand and vocal lawmakers have been kicked out of parliament as a result of sentiments bearing particularly Section 77.1.l. Hon. Dumbuya pinpoints that the presence of these laws in the books is uncalled for and irrelevant because it mortgages national interest over that of party inclinations and rhetoric.
“I don’t think we need to maintain Section 77.1.k and l. It is absolutely wrong. How can over forty thousand people elect you to parliament and then a single individual or group of individuals can have the power to remove you. The chairman of your party can remove you from parliament just by writing a letter to the Speaker announcing the withdrawal of your symbol from you. I think these sections must be removed. I questioned this while serving as a member of the Legislative Committee and I was warned to leave it alone since it has been there before the coming of us but I told the then Speaker that two wrongs cannot make one right. If it was wrong during the period of the SLPP, it is still wrong under our time and we should remove it from the congestion.” he lamented.
As an MP, he said if you are too critical of your party it is either you are removed under Section 77.1.l or at the end of your tenure, you are refused your party symbol as in the case of many of us,” adding that this is very unfair on one hand and the other deemed fair depending on who and how the coin is tossed,” the former Lawmaker said.
BY MOHAMED AMARA GANDO
