Sierra Leone vice president says requested asylum at U.S. embassy

Sierra Leone’s Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana said he had requested asylum at the U.S. embassy in Freetown after soldiers surrounded his residence on Saturday following his expulsion from the ruling party last week. Sam-Sumana was expelled from President Ernest Bai Koroma’s All People’s Congress (APC) party after an investigation accused him of creating his own rival political movement and fomenting violence in his home region of Kono, in diamond-rich eastern Sierra Leone. He has denied the allegations - which also included charges of lying about his academic credentials and his Muslim faith - and rejected calls for him to resign.

II have fled my house and am with my wife in a place I cannot disclose, waiting to hear from the U.S. ambassador, whom I have asked for asylum.

Sam-Sumana told Reuters

His expulsion from the party has stirred confusion as Sierra Leone’s 1991 constitution only allows the dismissal of the vice president with the vote of two-thirds of parliament, but it does require the office holder to belong to a political party. Sources in the security forces confirmed that troops were sent to the vice president’s home on Saturday to withdraw his security detail but they declined to say who had ordered it.

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