Madam Janet Savage, the former SLPP Women's Leader for Western Region who defected some two years ago to APC and Madam Susan Williams (aka Makambo) former SLPP Constituency Chairman who defected alongside Usu Boie a fortnight ago have yesterday condemned their former party Chairman John Benjamin (JOB) for telling lies about them. The two women have vowed to take over the radio airwaves to demand apologies from Benjamin or they will sue him for criminal libel.
Indeed, many Sierra Leoneans who had developed a huge amount of respect for JOB were yesterday June 25th 2012 expressing grave disappointment to hear John Benjamin tell the listening world, what can only be described as "malicious lies" against Janet Savage and Susan Williams.
To many, who spoke to this writer yesterday, they believe something might be wrong somewhere because Benjamin is not one known to just open his mouth and spout the type of unsubstantiated hearsay he deployed against the two dynamic female politicians.
It was a shock to many to hear JOB telling SLPP revelers that Janet Savage had told an un-named relative of his that Janet now hated APC because Susan Williams had defected from SLPP to join her in APC. Benjamin said Savage told this mystery relative of his that she wanted to go back to SLPP because she and Susan cannot stand each other and she will never be in the same party as Susan.
Other political observers insist JOB's comments are because repeated efforts by SLPP to re-win the two female politicians have failed. The two women defected from SLPP and have not looked back. The two women (Susan & Janet) on Sunday held a mammoth meeting for their new APC at Congo Town market where it was Susan Williams who introduced Janet Savage at the programme. Also, the two former SLPP women were shown on TV seated and laughing together at a State House event this past Friday.
The truth is that Politics is not about telling lies on political opponents. Politics is also not about telling lies about the size of crowds. It will appear that persons like the SLPP Spokesman Hon. Musa Tamba Sam, find it difficult to understand that ten thousand (10,000) means 1 multiplied 10 and that result of 10 multiplied by another 10 and that result of 100 multiplied by yet another 10 to give one thousand and that one thousand multiplied by 10 will then give ten thousand.
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| Maada Bio & Kadi Sesay leading the ‘Million Man March’ yesterday |
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| A Part of the so-called Million Man March yesterday |
In order to make such people properly understand things, let them be informed that ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE will fill the street space between Choithram's Supermarket and Electricity Building. Was there any point in yesterday's revelry that a crowd of human beings of more than such a stretch filled such a space along the streets of Freetown? NO! There was a vehicular convoy of that length and even beyond (stretching from Cotton Tree to Choithrams) but how anyone can even claim 5,000 people were on the streets of Freetown, let alone 50,000 people is beyond me.
To make matters worse, by evening, Tamba Sam was straight-faced saying the figure was "One Hundred Thousand Persons" whilst other SLPP supporters on the Internet ridiculously wrote of how "One Million Persons" came out for Maada Bio in Freetown.
SLPP is allowed to enjoy and dance on the streets but they are not allowed to lie so badly. It is hoped that when the euphoria of the 'One Million March' dies down and he is back to normal, John Benjamin will come to his senses and apologise to those two dynamic female politicians, Janet Savage and Susan Williams.
© Copyright by Awareness Times
Newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
