Sierra Leone Telegraph: 17 April 2024:

The controversial Speaker of Sierra Leone’s parliament, Dr Abass Bundu has tendered his resignation to President Bio, which he says is due to “illness”.

But tension has been mounting between Dr Bundu and President Julius Maada Bio, after Bio’s nomination of opposition MP – Mohamed Bangura to become member of the ECOWAS Parliament, was rescinded by Speaker Abass Bundu last week.

According to critics, Dr Bundu is one of the most corrupt and undemocratic Speaker of parliament the country has ever had.

In 2018, Bundu was controversially appointed by President Bio to serve as Speaker, after the High Court had nullified the election results of dozens of ruling APC party seats, won during the elections.

Speaker Bundu presided over the historical fist fight that took place in parliament, when opposition APC MPs were ordered to vacate the wells of parliament, after they were described by Speaker Bundu as ‘intruders’.

The opposition APC MPs were violently manhandled and thrown out of parliament by heavily armed police, creating a whole swathe of vacant seats for the ruling SLPP to occupy, giving the SLPP a huge majority in the House.

When the Afro Barometer Report published in March 2020 said that 81% of Sierra Leoneans believe that the country’s parliamentarians are corrupt, Speaker Bundu threatened local media reporters with police action for reporting the story.

Speaker Bundu, who himself was caught on video he personally recorded of himself in a compromising relationship with a young girl, raised serious questions about his integrity and fitness for the office of Speaker of Parliament of Sierra Leone.

Despite calls for his resignation or sacking, Speaker Bundu remained in office.

Critics say he was kept in office by President Bio to shore-up Bio’s northern political support for the ruling SLPP.

Bundu, who is believed to be almost 90 years old – if not older, is a northerner and has played a big part in keeping President Bio in office, including helping to bend parliamentary rules in favour of Bio’s government.

Accepting Bundu’s resignation letter yesterday, this is what President Bio said: