By Mohamed Vandi
National publicity secretary of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party has assured supporters in the eastern region that he will never join the All People’s Congress party and will forever remain SLPP. He said this while dismissing rumors that he had defected to the All People’s Congress calling it “total rubbish”. Musa Tamba Sam, a defeated parliamentary candidate, told Politico in Kenema that he was going round the district “to debunk misleading information about my aspiration to cross over to the APC”. He said such rumor “was cooked up and spread by some unpatriotic SLPP members who had hidden agenda and ultimately against the interest of the party”. Tamba Sam admitted that there were problems in his party, citing “ego and hidden political ambitions” as the root cause. He accused the SLPP national chairman, John Benjamin, of backing such false information about him. He said Benjamin discussed the false defection rumor about him on Sunday at a church service in Freetown. He said Maada Bio, who was flagbearer for the party, did not concede defeat and that it was therefore right that they have him continue with the leadership of the party. “The party will work out all necessary legal procedures to have Maada retained for the 2017 elections,” he boasted. Chairman for constituency 10, Mohamed Rogers, said their supporters in Kenema were in full support of the aspiration of Musa Tamba Sam. He said they were prepared to undertake every venture to have Maada Bio as leader for 2017. To his defence, the SLPP National Chairman, John Benjamin told Politico that he did hold a meeting after a church service with some relatives of Tamba Sam’s after he had heard that he was considering defecting to the APC. He said he wanted the relatives to talk him out of doing so. Benjamin accused Sam of pretentiousness saying he was trying to save face after his alleged defection had been made public. He maintained that Sam had been bruised because the lid had been blown off his intent. (C) Politico 07/02/13
