The Parliament of Sierra Leone has dismissed as “completely unfounded” reports that Speaker Rt. Hon. Segepoh Solomon Thomas failed to attend today’s Supreme Court hearing on the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2025 due to illness.
In a statement issued this afternoon by its Parliamentary and Public Relations Department, Parliament said Speaker Thomas is out of the jurisdiction of the country on official assignment and in any event need not attend the hearing as the State is properly represented.
According to Parliament, Speaker Thomas today, Wednesday 7th October at 12:00 Mid-day, departed the Republic of Guinea for Sierra Leone after attending the State Opening of the 10th Legislature of the 5th Republic of Guinea in Conakry.
The statement said that prior to his departure, the Speaker was accorded a full Guard-of-Honour and a standing ovation by Guinean authorities at the precincts of the National Assembly of Guinea, where he was bid farewell by his Guinean counterpart, Hon. Dr. Dansa Kourouma, and senior officials.
“The Guard-of-Honour, mounted by a smartly dressed contingent of the Guinean Republican Guard, was in recognition of Speaker Thomas’s stature as head of the legislative arm of a sister nation,” the statement said.
Speaker Thomas had been in Conakry at the invitation of the Guinean Speaker to grace the historic ceremony, leading a high-powered delegation from Sierra Leone.
The Parliamentary statement directly contradicts what was told to the Supreme Court this morning.
When the Supreme Court convened to hear the consolidated challenges to the Amendment Bill, Counsel for Speaker Thomas, Hon. Hindolo Gevao Esq., informed the panel of five Justices led by Chief Justice Komba Kamanda that the Speaker was unable to attend on medical grounds, having been taken ill with diarrhoea.
Speaker Thomas is a named defendant in one of the cases before the Court and is the presiding officer who oversaw the parliamentary proceedings on 10th August 2026 when the Bill was said to have been passed.
It is not immediately clear why two different explanations have been provided for the Speaker’s absence – illness in court, and official assignment abroad by Parliament’s own communications office.
The Supreme Court today began hearing all matters relating to the Amendment Bill, including the case filed by the Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) which triggered President Julius Maada Bio’s referral under Section 122(1), and separate suits by the APC and Hon. Osman Timbo.
At the heart of the dispute is whether Parliament met the threshold in Section 108(2)(b) of the 1991 Constitution requiring two-thirds of all 149 MPs – 100 MPs – to pass a constitutional amendment, after APC MPs walked out before the vote.
The Bill proposes to reduce the presidential winning threshold from 55% to 50% plus one, revert to Proportional Representation, and introduce a 30% quota for women in party leadership positions.
