News Story

FREETOWN: NEW PEOPLE CORRESPONDENT: The actions of the APC leadership have resulted in the continuous sidelining of Vice President Sam Sumana. A high powered delegation of elders from Kono over the past two weeks have been holding secret talks in the city with the Vice President over what they described as the marginalization and suppression of their son in the current APC government, thereby leading to the ineffectiveness and under-performance of the duties and functions of a VP. The Kono elders registered their frustration over the continuous spate of violence in their home district and described it as a deliberate attempt by detractors of the VP to undermine his authority and present a picture of his unacceptability and non-recognition by the Kono people. The elders note with caution why there has been no similar instance of violence in the home of the President or any of his northern ministers, but only in Kono.

Our source further reveals that within APC inner caucuses, Sam Sumana now carries the new name tag, "trenja" (stranger) and tenant in the state house. The money he allegedly paid to be nominated a VP is said to be referred to as his "rent money" which they say will run out in 2012, when a true Temne APC die hard will be appointed as running mate. The Kono elders see this action as too early and pre-mature, and believe that this attitude may undermine peace in Kono and the effective discharge of the VP's duties.

They have therefore cautioned their Kono tribesman to be careful as the APC will do everything to present him as an incapable Vice President. The elders also noted with dismay that certain functions of the Vice President whave been deliberately relocated to other offices. Such functions as the management of the DACO office, the supervision of cabinet ministers, heading the Police Council and therefore bearing control over issues of law and order, and other state functions as dictated by the constitution have been taken away from the vice president.

The negative propaganda about the monthly cleaning exercise in the city alone and supervised by the office of the VP, and the allegation of his office squandering eighty million Leones (Le80,000,000), the elders alledged, was a deliberate attempt by the APC power hungry hardliners to make VP Sam Sumana very unpopular to the general population in Freetown. It is no surprise then that the VP's office has taken a back seat on this highly politicised matter.

The elders further disclosed to V.P Sam Sumana that the recent clash between supporters of the opposition SLPP and the APC in Kono (when national officials of the SLPP went to meet with their membership); where only the Kono native youths were involved in the clash was politically planned by the self styled APC hardliners. It is alleged that some APC Temne ‘hardliners’ who are equally eyeing the V.P seat sent a secret team to their Temne brothers in Kono not to join the APC Kono youths in their clash with SLPP.

In his remarks, the embattled Vice President is reported to have taken the concerns of his tribesmen into serious consideration, and thanked them for their concerns, noting that his intention of joining politics has ever been to better the lives of his fellow country men and that any ill motivated actions from detractors will meet the stiffest resistance. VP Sam Sumana pleaded with his district elders to exercise patience as he is aware of everything around him, concluding that when the smoke is too much in the kitchen, the cook will know what to do.