JFK BREAKS Silence On Sam-Sumana’s Removal: “The Judges Did Not Do Justice”
By Staff Writer
Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara (JFK), has openly criticised the controversial removal of former Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana from office, declaring that he personally disagreed with the manner in which the matter was handled and believed the judges “did not do justice” to the case.
Speaking during AYV Television’s State of the Nation programme, Kamara clarified that he was not serving as Attorney General at the time Sam-Sumana was removed from office by former President Ernest Bai Koroma in 2015.
According to JFK, he was then serving as Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and was not directly involved in the legal and political processes surrounding the former Vice President’s removal.
He also dismissed suggestions that he advised former President Koroma on the decision, maintaining that his position at the time kept him largely detached from the political developments surrounding the controversial episode.
However, when asked to give his personal opinion as a legal practitioner, JFK did not mince his words.
“Personally, I don’t think I liked it, and I thought that the judges did not do justice to that decision.”
The remarks are particularly significant given JFK’s later appointment as Attorney General and Minister of Justice under the same Ernest Bai Koroma administration.
Sam-Sumana’s removal remains one of the most controversial constitutional and political episodes in Sierra Leone’s recent history.
The controversy took a further international dimension in 2017 when the ECOWAS Court ruled that the removal of Sam-Sumana violated his rights and ordered the Government of Sierra Leone to pay his outstanding salaries and benefits.
At the time, JFK was serving as Attorney General and Minister of Justice. The Government subsequently rejected the ECOWAS Court’s ruling, maintaining that the regional court lacked jurisdiction because the matter had already been determined by Sierra Leone’s Supreme Court.
JFK has now indicated that, had he been President at the time, he would have approached the matter differently.
His latest comments could reopen old wounds and reignite debate within the All People’s Congress (APC) over one of the most contentious decisions of the Ernest Bai Koroma administration.
They also come at a politically sensitive period, as JFK is now an aspirant for the APC’s flagbearership ahead of the 2028 presidential election.
The question many political observers may now be asking is whether JFK’s comments represent a personal reflection on a controversial chapter in Sierra Leone’s constitutional history—or a significant reassessment of a decision that continues to divide legal and political opinion more than a decade later.
