Former Minister of Information and Communications under the APC-led government, Hon. Alpha Kanu, has on Friday, 28th April, 2023, in his home town of Port Loko, defected to the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) ahead of the June 24 2023 polls.
Alpha Khan, as he is fondly called by his political admirers, was a staunch member of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party, under whose ticket he won as a Member of Parliament, and previously held political appointments as Minister of Presidential Affairs, Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Minister of Information and Communications, Presidential Spokesman, among others.
Born in Port Loko District, North-Western Sierra Leone, a stronghold of the APC, Hon. Alpha Khan released a letter in the early hours of Friday, 28th April, 2023, terminating his membership with the APC. As a heavyweight in the now divorced APC party, Hon. Alpha Khan was a thorn in the flesh for the then SLPP when it was in opposition from 2007-2018. However, when he was humiliated, marginalized and neglected by members of his former political party, he was appointed Resident Minister in the North-Western Region by President Julius Maada Bio.
“I defected because my comrades in the APC threw me in a water well. I was rescued by President Bio. So, I cannot reinvent an umbrella when I can afford to buy one,” he said.
He said the SLPP has embraced him so much that he was invited to sit at the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, which was the second highest decision-making body of SLPP, that was held few weeks ago in Kambia town, North-Western Sierra Leone, noting that when he was in the APC, he was never allowed to sit at the National Advisory Council (NAC) meeting because he was never a member.
“In the area of development within Port Loko District, President Bio’s government has constructed and operationalized a brand-new international airport, hospitals, major bridges, initiated and implemented the rural electrification project many chiefdoms within the district, and the first ever girls’ school in Port Loko. Over 1,000 teachers were pin coded and additional classrooms were provided in our schools, among many other development efforts,” he explained.
Hon. Alpha Khan, who did not defect alone but brought along hundreds of his supporters, former Members of Parliament (MPs), mayor and councilors, that were serving under the APC party ticket, called on all of his supporters to overwhelmingly vote for President Bio in the June 24 2023 elections.
President Bio, who doubles as the Leader of the SLPP, welcome Hon. Alpha Khan, former MPs, mayor and councilors, to the SLPP, saying that Alpha Khan was in a strange land where the values were not matched.
“You would have realized more if you would have been a member of the SLPP. You have a huge talent that would have been better utilized if you were in the SLPP. But it is always better late than never,” he said.