By Emmanuel Sogbandi
Despite the conscious efforts to prevent him entering the convention hall in Makeni; despite the all-out war waged against him at the eleventh of the last convention, Dr Richard Konteh yet mustered the highest level of courage amongst colleague flag bearer aspirants to not only be the first person to congratulate Dr Samura Kamara but patiently waited in Makeni to come along with the latter in Freetown.
For the naysayers and doubting Thomases, here are some evidence based supports of Dr Richard Konteh to his brother and colleague Dr Samura Kamara after the 2022 Makeni delegates conference;
1) Dr Richard Konteh succeeded prevailing on colleague flag bearer aspirants to fully support Dr Samura Kamara as first step.
2) Grounded in electioneering processes, Dr Richard Konteh vigilantly supervised the printing of voters register at his Hill station offices and distributed them to party representatives in all polling stations and centers across the country for the first time.
3) When voters were in despair, Dr Richard Konteh authored an audio with solid message of hope to the people of Sierra Leone. He was commended for that action by our esteemed erstwhile President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma.
3) Dr Richard Konteh also helped to set up an alternative collation center in Makeni with the determination to produce results before the announcement of the National Returning Officer of the Electoral Commission – Sierra Leone (ECSL) but was eventually called upon by the then Leader Dr Samura Kamara to close the center.
4) When the first 60 percent of the results was announced, Dr Richard Konteh wasted no time but to hurriedly meet with his brother at his IMATT residence in Freetown to discuss the next steps. With the glaring evidence of rigging, Dr Richard Konteh was more than willing to serve as principal witness in court as suggested by Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara and late Abdulai O. Conteh of blessed memory.
5) In the vague tripartite agreement signed at Bintumani amongst the eight resolutions, Dr Richard Konyeh and his colleagues that represented the APC party in the Tripartite did everything possible to achieve the desired results. They went as far as initiating a prudent idea to call for a re-count of the June 2023 elections results which could not have been possibly rejected by the International Community as opposed to the rerun which the international community had long frowned at from the get go.
6) For the APC party to have 71 percent of the results which gave Dr Samura Kamara a comfortable leading command, Dr Richard Konteh had to go the extra mile to offer his office space at Hill Station gratis to do a fresh collation with valid RRFs. Despite his status, he had to sleep in the office with apc IT team for several nights just to see that the right thing was done.
If love and loyalty to Dr Samura Kamara and the APC party could be determined by efforts, I must state that Dr Richard Konteh has no equal.
I thank you all! Please feel free to share far and wide.
