Former Vice President of Sierra Leone, Hon. Victor Bocakarie Foh, who held almost all the positions in the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) political party, has on Sunday, 30th April, 2023, expressed his dissatisfaction over the heightened tribal provocations against the Mende ethnic group, saying that such provocations were being orchestrated by his former boss, former President Ernest Bai Koroma.
Unarguably, no one in the APC could be said to be more loyal than former Vice President Victor Bockarie Foh, who is also from the Mende ethnic group. The country’s former Vice President under the Ernest Bai Koroma’s-led government, was born in Limba village, Jimmi Bagbo Chiefdom, Bo District, Southern Sierra Leone, a stronghold of the ruling SLPP. As a Mende, he was very disappointed with the current tribal provocations against his tribesmen by some members of the main opposition APC.
At the Koidu Football Field in Kono, where he declared to join the ruling SLPP, Hon. the former Vice President said he was now a member of the SLPP, having formerly held almost all party positions in the main opposition APC.
“I am fed up with the tribal provocations against the Mende ethnic group. Frankly, those tribal provocations were orchestrated by my former boss, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma. Those tribal provocations are not healthy for a developing country like Sierra Leone. The President Julius Maada Bio’s-led government has been very inclusive. President Bio, who is from the south, is the head of the Executive, Dr. Abass Bundu, who is from the north and from the Temne ethnic group, is the head of the Legislature, and a Creole from the Western Region, Hon. Chief Justice Babatunde Edwards, is the head of the Judiciary. Can you say the same for the Ernest Bai Koroma-led government? The answer is a definite no,” he said.
He said he was the one that convinced former President Ernest Koroma to leave his former political party which was the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to join the All People’s Congress (APC) party, under whose symbol he later became president from 2007-2018 and Hon. Victor Bockarie Foh became his vice from 2015-2018.
“I was put on death penalty for the APC. I was humiliated for the APC. My properties were seized for the APC. I sacrificed everything I have for the APC to come back to power in 2007. I was the strategist for all the elections that APC won in this country. Former President Ernest Bai Koroma did not suffer any loss for the APC but he is the one that has destroyed the APC,” he fearless said in Kono.
Former VP Foh said he was no longer in need of a job because he was now an old man but he would join the SLPP to advise the young politicians.
“I am publicly apologizing for what the APC has done to the Mende ethnic group including all the disturbances they have caused for President Bio’s-led government,” he apologized.
He urged his audience to vote for President Bio and all SLPP candidates in the June 24, 2023, multitier elections, adding that anyone that votes for the APC in the forthcoming elections is an enemy of the state.
“I like the ways of President Bio. He has excelled because he has been thinking national rather than regional. He has been thinking equal opportunities rather than tribal provocations. If he would not have been a peaceful man, he would have roped all APC thieves in the former government for corruption,” he said.