Freetown — The president of the Sierra Leone Bar Association has transferred day-to-day control of the organisation to a temporary caretaker team after police interrupted its leadership elections, insisting that no candidate secured a mandate because voting never took place.
Adama Tuma Jabbie Gento-Kamara told an Emergency General Meeting that the disruption was unprecedented and deeply damaging to the legal profession. Lawyers had gathered to elect new leaders, one of the association’s core constitutional duties, only to be stopped by officers who said they were following higher instructions.
“The elections did not take place,” Gento-Kamara said. “Police officers disrupted the process and informed us that they were acting on instructions from above. Consequently, no ballot was completed, no votes were counted, and no candidates received a democratic mandate from the membership. That is the factual record.”
He stressed that the events must be recorded accurately, warning against any attempt to reshape the narrative for political convenience. A profession built on evidence and the rule of law, he argued, cannot abandon the facts.
The interruption, he said, raises issues that reach beyond the Bar itself. “The independence of the Bar is not a private privilege enjoyed by lawyers. It is part of the institutional architecture that protects the rule of law.”
When lawyers are blocked from managing their own affairs through lawful elections, public trust in constitutional governance and democratic accountability is eroded.
Despite his disappointment, Gento-Kamara called on members to respond with discipline and restraint. The association, he said, would not meet disruption with disorder. Instead it would use every lawful means to protect the Bar’s autonomy, establish the full facts, and secure free, fair and transparent elections.
He reminded colleagues that the Sierra Leone Bar Association is an enduring institution that outlasts any individual office-holder. “Leadership is not the possession of office; it is the protection of institutions.”
To avoid a leadership vacuum, Gento-Kamara announced he was immediately handing administrative control to a caretaker team. The arrangement, he emphasised, does not recognise any electoral victory or defeat: no election occurred, so no candidate can claim a democratic mandate.
The team’s sole purpose is to maintain continuity, safeguard records and assets, keep essential services running, and prepare the ground for lawyers themselves to choose their next leaders.
The caretaker body was urged to act with transparency and impartiality, using only the limited authority needed to keep the association functioning until fresh elections can be held.
The Emergency General Meeting was called after the electoral process was suspended, amid mounting concern about the future governance of the Bar.
The episode is likely to fuel wider debate about the independence of professional bodies and the integrity of democratic processes within them as the legal community awaits the next steps toward new elections.
