The former leader of the Coalition for Change (C4C) party, who now doubles as the current Deputy Leader of Government Business II from the SLPP bench, Hon. Emerson Saa Lamina, has disclosed that, “If what pessimists are alluding to as a tactics by ECOWAS to free the former president, Ernest Bai Koroma, from the yoke of the apparent evidences the state has against him, and in the estimation of leaders of the sub-regional body, let bygones be bygones, so be it.”

According to Hon. Emerson Saaa Lamina, he stood in magnanimity with President Julius Maada Bio on the release of former President Ernest Bai Koroma.

He said the volatility of our country’s security culminating in the November 26, 2023 coup attempt and the alleged involvement of former president Ernest Bai Koroma, to him, is the penultimate of our security crisis.

“Our state security apparatus and the judiciary have done the needful in their manifestations of handing justice with the commencement of trials of the alleged culprits including the former President”.

Hon Emerson Saa Lamina said, in as much as he respected the views and opinions of those who wished to see the former president continues to face the full force of the law unabated, he noted, “I admire and stand by the magnanimity showed by President Julius Maada Bio in allowing, through the judiciary, for the former President to leave the jurisdiction of Sierra Leone to seek medical treatment in Nigeria”.

In his candid view, President Bio’s decision is well-thought out and such a deliberate decision can only be taken by a leader that has at heart the genuine interest of his country.

“Yes, we are a sovereign state; yes we are covered by the United Nations’ Charter that guarantees our sovereignty from non-interference, but again, we are Africa and we are ECOWAS. We are not a state in isolation. We are part of the wider community of civilized nations. Yes, we are Sierra Leone,” he asserted.

The Kono MP, beseeched his fellow Members of Parliament to take a deep breath and see the decision of the judiciary to evacuate Dr Ernest Bai Koroma as the best on the faces of the following considerations.

Furthermore, he lamented that when our Sierra Leone was engulfed in that senselessly eleven-years fratricidal, Sierra Leoneans benefited immensely from the intervention of regional block ECOWAS which spent their human and financial resources in defence of our democracy to restore sanity.

He stated that hundreds of their men and women in uniforms lost their lives in the cause then.

Secondly, he went on, that Ernest Bai Koroma’s presence in Sierra Leone had put a lot of pressure on our security budget just to maintain the peace by augmenting logistics, morale booster and other paraphernalia. “Can you imagine that?” he asked.

He stated that President Koroma’s presence which has been creating tension on a daily basis for our country’s security sector will soon dissipate leaving our security sector to focus more on internal security maintenance and on protecting lives and properties of citizens.

Furthermore, Hon Lamina, underscored that, it would have been very unfortunate for the government of Sierra Leone to blatantly deny any such beckoning of the other 14 ECOWAS States to continue holding ex-president Ernest Bai Koroma as a ransom for the country’s peace and stability.

He added that, should any unfortunate scenario occur, he asked, do we think ECOWAS will ever come to the aid of Sierra Leone? This makes the lawmaker revert to the old Krio adage that says: “if wan man cook for 14 man dem, den go able done am; bot if 14 man cook for u….”

“I don’t think any well-meaning Sierra Leonean will want to see this country turned into a pariah by sister countries should there erupt any inferno as a consequence” he wished.

Additionally, Hon Lamina, pointed out that, the Ernest Bai Koroma/APC relationship will soon face the reality of “nearest is dearest.”

“Trust me all the APC fanfare around him has died along the departure of president Koroma. His die-hard loyalists will now find a safe cocoon away from their waywardness and reckless behaviours,” he said.

He stressed that a soon-to-emerge new radical leader of the APC is sure to put the final nail onto the coffin of his popularity; a situation that has also been an ‘anathema’ for the progressive movement of the APC.

Finally, the SLPP MP said, this unfortunate situation of November 26, 2023 should teach many a great lesson and shall pave way to a strengthening of  their relationship as a nation with their grassroots, domestic stakeholders, regional bodies and other external bodies like South Africa with whom our political ideology of “One Country, One People” so resonates, he said.

He maintained that releasing the former president on humanitarian grounds to seek medical attention therefore, demonstrates that Sierra Leone and President Julius Maada Bio are respecters of a community treaty signed many years ago.

“I stand with your magnanimity, Mr. President,” he said.