The Chairman of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Jimmy Batilo Songa, has come under fire after Regional Chairmen of the Citizens Democratic Party (CDP) publicly rejected his claim that Hon. Alhaji Musa Tarawally remains a member of the CDP.
In a strongly worded press statement dated 18th September 2026 and jointly signed by the CDP Regional Chairmen for the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Regions, the party executives said Batilo Songa’s assertion is false and misleading.
According to the regional chairmen, Hon. Alhaji Musa Tarawally officially resigned from the Citizens Democratic Party on 15th June 2018, immediately after the first round of the 2018 general elections.
The statement noted that following his resignation, Hon. Musa Tarawally returned to the SLPP and publicly declared his support for President Julius Maada Bio during the 2018 presidential run-off campaign at the Bo Coronation Field in Bo City.
“The records are clear. Hon. Alhaji Musa Tarawally resigned from the CDP on 15 June 2018. He is no longer a member of our party and has not been for over eight years,” the regional chairmen stated.
The CDP regional leadership also distanced itself from a recent correspondence said to have been issued by the party’s current Secretary General in response to an inquiry from the SLPP Chairman regarding Hon. Musa Tarawally’s membership status.
They disclosed that the Secretary General issued the letter without consulting the regional chairmen, who constitute a major arm of the party’s leadership structure.
Furthermore, the chairmen revealed that the current National Chairman of the CDP, who was serving as National Secretary General at the time Hon. Musa Tarawally tendered his resignation in 2018, has confirmed that he was not consulted before the Secretary General wrote the controversial letter claiming Tarawally was still a CDP member.
Political observers say the development has embarrassed the SLPP Chairman and raised questions about the motive behind his claim, coming at a time when Hon. Musa Tarawally, a former cabinet minister and influential politician, has reaffirmed his loyalty and active membership in the SLPP.
Efforts to get a response from the SLPP Chairman, Jimmy Batilo Songa, and the CDP Secretary General proved unsuccessful up to press time.
Hon. Alhaji Musa Tarawally, who founded the CDP in 2017 after falling out with the APC, dissolved his political ties with the CDP and returned to the SLPP fold in 2018, where he has since been serving as a senior stakeholder.