June 30, 2021
The Hon. Member of Parliament representing the people of constituency 072 in the Port Loko District Hon. Alimamy Brun Kanu has on Monday 28th June 2021 in the Chamber of Parliament called for radical reforms in the Judiciary of Sierra Leone for fairness and transparent judgment. The Honorable member was speaking during the ongoing Presidential debate on the motion of thanks on the Speech delivered by His Excellency the President Dr. Julius Maada Bio on the occasion of the State Opening of the Fourth Session of the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone in the Chamber of Parliament on Tuesday 18th May 2021.
Hon. Kanu admonished the president to restructure the judiciary; citing several injustices meted on the main opposition party members.
He said many rulings had gone against their party membership, citing; the recently concluded case in Bo of a young man who is a member of the APC, voicing out his democratic right on the challenges of this government and was sentenced to eight months in prison and also the matters relating to Dr.Sylvia Blyden with the state. The honorable member said those that were arrested in the riot in Makeni and Tombo community are still languishing in jailed and locked up for a crime they do not commit.
He called on the government to see the need for an overall restructuring of the entire judiciary for fairness, impartial, transparency, and equality before the law
The outspoken MP also touched on corruption-related issues in which he questioned the current Bio’s administration in the fight, citing that in 2018 and 2019 speech he said “fighting corruption and improving accountability” and 2020 the subject matter was “fighting corruption and illicit financial flows”. He said on the 2021 speech the president did not state anything on corruption because according to the MP there is no one to fight unless his party members and feels that fighting corruption is misplaced in the new direction.