I’m amused by the allegation because it’s unfounded. This whole thing is a process and I am the chairman; we have committee members and these members are divided into subcommittees which I am not part of. (swagatgrocery.com) These subcommittee met, discussed and agreed on recommendations before submitting them to the plenary which was the main decision making body”, he said.
The chairman also stated that every political party was adequately represented in the entire constitutional review process which was being closed now, adding that both minority and majority representatives contributed in the plenary decision making process.
“I am just presiding over the plenary meetings and debates…in the composition of the CRC we have university professors, judges accountants, lawyers and people from civil society organisations. I find the allegations very amusing,” he said.
He said people were concerned about him being biased, but biased in whose favour? he asked, adding that the constitutional review process was a national issue where a committee was set up from all walks of life to determine the supreme law of the country.
National Secretary General of the ruling All People’s Congress, APC, Ambassador Osman Foday Yansaneh, said his party was rejecting the draft bill because the committee’s chairman, Justice Cowan, had demonstrated bias in the process and became too personal in his handlings.
Ambassador Yansaneh said that they would not append their signature to the draft bill until their concerns were adequately addressed.
The media and communication person of the Revolutionary United Front Party, James Samuel Cole, submitted that they would also withdraw their signature from the initial draft on the basis that their representatives in the CRC process were marginalised and denied equal access to adequately peruse the document.
Owing to the outright rejection of the draft bill the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party had said that the APC government was stalling the review process.
Their legal representative, Lawyer Hindolo Gevao, said the APC had six representatives who were part of the entire process, adding that they were not sincere with the people of Sierra Leone.
