By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
A consortium of up to 40 civil society groups has called on the government to harmonize the COVID-19 regulations by presenting a unified set of rules for parliamentary approval.
The call comes on the back of violence that erupted in the fishing village of Tombo where fishermen went on the rampage after they were told on Wednesday that only 15 boats could go out to fish as part of the COVID-19 rules geared towards promoting social distancing.
The civil society consortium, which is known as the Civil Society Working Group on Epidemics and Natural Disasters, made the call on Friday, May 8, as part of its latest report on the challenges and successes of the recent three days lockdown, which ended on Tuesday, May 5.
“Whiles condemning the act of youths and fishermen of Tombo in taking the law in to their hands, it is also important to emphasize that the seeming lack of consolidated set of clear and predictable regulation for COVID-19 did contribute in exacerbating the Tombo crisis situation,” part of the report states, adding: “We urge parliament to demand that all COVID-19 regulations be laid before it for approval pursuant to section 170 (subsection) 7…”
Public Relations Officer of the consortium, Thomas Moore Conteh, said: “If there were regulations, we wouldn’t have had the incident in Tombo. There is need for a set of regulations to understand what we are in to.”
Parliament of Sierra Leone approved the State of Emergency declared by President Bio in April, with the promise that the government would return two weeks later with a comprehensive set of regulations that would be implemented to tackle the pandemic.
The Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General’s office has not submitted a comprehensive set of regulation for the house to debate and ratify.
Attorney General, Priscilla Shcwartz, is on record as saying the President has emergency powers to appoint people who could make regulations to fight COVID-19.
In a press conference at State House last month, she said: “The law allows the president and those he has empowered under this emergency to make such regulations, rules and orders for ninety days before it goes to Parliament.”
Schwartz however added that they had been informing and collaborating with the leadership of parliament along the way.
Chairman of the civil society consortium, Lawyer Rashid Dumbuya, condemned the AG’s stance, saying: “She has overstepped her bounds by attempting to interpret the constitution. She has no power, the constitution is the sole jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.”
Almost two weeks ago an attempt to push through some regulations including a curfew in Kambia was botched after lawmakers demanded the full set of rules.
Hours after the Tombo incident, the Chairman of the Western Rural District, Kasho Holland Cole, condemned the violence whiles saying he had no knowledge of any such regulation.
“As far as I know, I’ve never been in any meeting or any gathering where we talked about the number of boats or say 10 or 15 boats should be allowed to go to sea,” he told journalists.
A number of regulations have come into effect since the State of Emergency was first declared over a month ago. Different ministries have announced their own set of regulations.
Some of those regulations include a nationwide curfew from 9pm to 6am, compulsory wearing of face masks and the ban on worship in mosques and churches.
The civil society consortium’s 21-page report also focused on issues like human rights and the need for collaboration among political parties in the face of the pandemic.
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