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Monday Jan 21, 2013. Two top SLPP party officials have stoutly denied that the party is in a crisis and in danger of falling apart. Musa Tamba Sam, party spokesman, and Isatu Jabbie Kabba, national women’s chairlady, both maintained that the fracas which occurred at the party headquarters in Freetown over the weekend, in which the party chairman’s vehicle tyres were deflated and he was roundly abused, was being blown out of proportion and that the party was intact. The real story is a tussle for power inside the SLPP between supporters of retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio, defeated SLPP flagbearer in the recent elections and his opponents who may include John Benjamin, the party chairman, and also those who do not want to see Bio anointed as flagbearer for the 2017 presidential elections. Senior party members, including the chairman, have complained of underhand tactics used by the party secretary-general, Sulaiman Banja Tejan-Sie, to force through a resolution supporting Bio’s leadership ambitions at a party executive meeting held recently. In the interview, both Kabba and Tamba Sam were careful not to antagonize either camp, although they appeared more eager to please the Bio side. |
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