Moves by the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) to persuade former Vice President Samuel Sam Sumana to throw his weight behind the party for the Saturday 24th June, 2023 multitier elections have reportedly hit the wall.

Sources close to former Vice President recalled that when the National Advisory Committee (NAC) of the APC wanted to extend its tenure after it expired in 2021, they took advantage of the 1995 Party Constitution which stipulated that in terms of emergency where the National Delegates Conference (NDC) could not be convened, the NAC should transform itself into a National Delegates Conference (NDC) and take decisions that only an NDC should take.

They said it was the same material moment when the NAC transformed itself into an NDC to extend its time that it unanimously agreed to reinstate former Vice President Sam Sumana unconditionally with no descent from any of the NAC members present, noting that the NAC decision was clearly stated by the erstwhile National Secretary General, Alhaji Osman Foday Yansaneh in a letter to Sam Sumana communicating the decision of his reinstatement by NAC.

They furthered that it was against this backdrop that Sam Sumana accepted the reinstatement letter and when the time came for the flag-bearer contest, he paid his membership backlog contribution of Le12million into the party’s bank account, which was never rejected by the party, adding that the former Vice President also paid the Le6million for the flag-bearer application form and the party also accepted the payment.

Sources said Sam Sumana later paid his flag-bearer candidature fee of Le30million into the same account which the party again accepted and published.

They however claimed that when the time came for the former Vice President to join the fray for the flag-bearer race, the party hierarchy claimed that he wasn’t qualified because the letter of reinstatement that was sent to him stated that only after his membership was approved at a NDC should he be qualified as a member to take part in any APC business, especially the flag-bearer race.

A few weeks after the APC had elected Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara as their presidential candidate at the NDC held in Makeni in February this year, a letter was sent to Sam Sumana authored and signed by the APC National Deputy Secretary General, Osman Timbo Esq. stating that the former Vice President has been “readmitted into the APC Party.”

“The interpretation of that letter to Chief Sam Sumana is that he is going to start as a new member afresh while ignoring the word ‘reinstatement’ that was used in the previous letter written by Alhaji Osman Foday Yansaneh in his capacity as APC National Secretary General,” one of the sources said, adding that Sam Sumana had cause to return the letter on grounds that they should use the correct word from the previous letter, which talked about ‘reinstatement’ instead of ‘readmission’.

Lawyer Timbo was however quoted as saying that it was the 1995 Party Constitution that had the work “Reinstatement” while the 2022 amended constitution has the word “Readmission.”

Sources close to the Vice President accused the APC party of playing games with the membership of Sam Sumana, adding that they are provoking the former second gentleman thereby inviting more problems in the party.

“What we’ll not tolerate this time around is for anyone to attempt to blame Chief Sam Sumana for anything that might befall the APC party in the June 24 polls and if anyone does, he/she would face the sternest of resistance and retribution because it is not fair and God doesn’t want that,” one of the sources concluded.