Justice Komba Kamanda of the High Court of Sierra Leone will today, 24 January 2020, hear arguments on the injunction sought by the National Reformation Movement (NRM) that halted the main opposition All Peoples Congress party from holding its National Delegates Conference in Port Loko district.

Hearing of the matter comes up after Justice Kamanda struck out with a cost of Le4M as damage the party’s affidavit filed by their legal team challenging the plaintiffs’ membership for wrong date.

Lead counsel for the party, lawyer Wara Serryl Kamal is expected to argue the case put forward by the NRM members of the same party to set aside the injunction and allow the party continue with its sanctioned conference convened for the adoption of the party’s new draft Constitution.

While the plaintiff’s lawyer, Hindolo Gevou will tactfully crave the court to hand down a permanent injunction on the said conference until the demands put forward by the NRM members are fully met.

The long drawn-out battle between the APC party and the National Reformation Movement (NRM), a splinter group of the party, which surfaced after the party lost the 2018 presidential election to it political rival - the ruling SLPP - stemmed from the removal of the “Selection” clause in the party Constitution.
In the new draft Constitution, the party under the leader and Chairmanship of Ernest Bai Koroma, the contentious clause was expunged and replaced with “Election” an “Consultation” clause, a modification the Movement strongly opposed.

Insistently, NRM wants it replaced with “Election” with no alternative, because according to them, it will create a platform for every member irrespective of status to contest for positions within the party.

It can be recalled that the Ernest Bai Koroma led executive, which the NRM termed as old guards, used the ‘Selection” clause to solely select Dr Samura Kamara, over 25 aspirants, as the party’s 2018 presidential flag bearer.