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Sierra Leone president replaces dismissed vice president

Friday, 20 March 2015 7:23 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 20 March 2015 7:23 AM ]

President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma © AFP

Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma has appointed and sworn in a new vice president after sacking the previous deputy for seeking political asylum in a foreign embassy.

Victor Bockarie Foh, a veteran politician in the West African nation’s ruling party, the All People's Congress (APC), was offered the top job “due to the vacancy of the post,” the presidential office said in a statement on Thursday.

Foh “will join the administration, bringing in [his] experience and value to our efforts to build democracy and work for the end of Ebola,” President Koroma stated after the swearing-in ceremony.

Sierra Leone's newly-appointed Vice President Victor Bockarie Foh

The new vice president, 68, was formerly a senior official in the Finance Ministry and also the APC secretary general for more than a decade until he was appointed the nation’s ambassador to China.

The swearing-in ceremony was held one day after the sacked deputy, Samuel Sam-Sumana, who was accused of abandoning duties and ousted on Tuesday, vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.

On March 6, the APC expelled the former VP, accusing him of instigating unrest in Sierra Leone’s eastern district of Kono, treachery, fraud and threatening key party officials.

Sam-Sumana, however, denied the accusations and fled his residence asking for political asylum in the United States. He returned to his country on Monday, March 16, and was dismissed from his post the following day.

Sierra Leone's former Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana

The sacked vice president has accused Koroma of acting unlawfully, saying the president “does not have the constitutional right to sack me because I was not appointed by him, but elected under the constitution of Sierra Leone.”

Sam Sumana’s dismissal, along with several other senior members’ expulsions, reprimands, and fines, have been considered a massive crackdown on “anti-party activities.”

Under Sierra Leone’s constitution, Koroma, who was re-elected in 2012 for a second term with Sam-Sumana, cannot stand again in 2017 elections.

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