Says Sidi Yayah Tunis
The National Publicity Secretary of the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC), Sidi Yayah Tunis has recently provided updates on the membership status of the former Vice President, Chief Alhaji Abu Bakarr Samsumana and also his eligibility for the 2028 presidential ticket of the party.
This latest update from the opposition APC mouthpiece comes at a crucial time when the party is preparing for its internal lower-level elections and that of its National Delegates’ Conference slated for 2026 to elect the 2028 presidential candidate for the party and national executive.
Speaking during a local media interview, Tunis stated that the APC is a very structured party that operates in line with the national constitution and the party new constitution. He noted that when someone leaves an institution in whichhe/she has been a member and later decides to return, there are ways to go about it.
SidiYayah Tunis also noted that the APC has several organs, adding that there is only one organ in the party that has the authority to expel or reinstate members which is the National Advisory Council (NAC), adding that such is the current situation of the former Vice President when it comes to his membership status within the party.
According to the APC mouthpiece, former Vice President Sam Sumana received a readmission letter from the national executive in 2020, but noted that the same letter stated that the readmission will be approved pending NAC’s approval.
However, Alhaji Sidi Yayah Tunis said it is not the APC that do not want the former Vice President to run for the 2028 Flagbearer ticket of the APC.Speaking on the present status of Sam Sumana’s membership, the APC Mouthpiece noted that before the readmission letter was issued to the former Vice President in 2020, the party was in court and preparing to go into convention, but that a High Court ruling by Justice Adrian Fisher blocked the process on the grounds that the national executive officers, at that time, were illegal and that there mandate had expired.
He also stated that the party fought two major legal battles from 2020 to 2022against the one Alfred Peter Conteh and the NRM on the grounds that the mandate and authority of the national executive had expired and that the officers are illegal and unelected.
Tunis also noted that the court issued a ban on all national executive officers at that time saying that they are ineligible to carry out their duties including the APC-NAC which left them with no options.
Nevertheless, the APC mouthpiece stated that two interim bodies were established at time by the High Court ruling to run the administration of the party and also to conducts the internal elections. He continued that the former Vice President at that time was out of APC and had formed a new party and contested as a presidential candidate in 2018.
However, he said, helater decided to return to APC and applied for the party membership.He furthered that the readmission letter that was issued to Sam in 2020 was illegal but that after that year’s convention and the 2023 general elections, the former Vice President reapplied for his membership under the new executive.
Tunis also revealed that the former Vice President has since been readmitted and his new ID card issued him, but that his approval is still pending.
