Lawyers for SLPP flagbearer aspirant, Hon. Alhaji Musa Tarawally, have told the Sierra Leone People’s Party that it has no evidence and no authority to issue a Public Notice blacklisting their client.
In a strongly-worded reply dated 24th September 2026, Jengo, Sam & Partners told the Party’s lawyer, Hindolo M. Gevao Esq. of Gevao & Associates – who is representing National Publicity Secretary Moses Sellu Mambu – that the SLPP has failed to justify its controversial notice of 19th September.
The SLPP notice, signed by Moses Sellu Mambu, had warned all party executives, members, supporters, the general public and the business community not to transact any business with Hon. Musa Tarawally in the name of the SLPP.
In their earlier letter of 20th September, Tarawally’s lawyers demanded two things: particulars of any occasion on which Tarawally allegedly transacted business in the SLPP’s name, and the identity of the organ or officer of the Party that authorized the notice.
In the new letter signed by Jessie M. Jengo Esq., the firm says the SLPP’s response dated 23rd September, which was the same reply sent on behalf of the National Chairman, failed to supply either.
“We observe that it is, save for the name of your client, word for word the letter you wrote to us on the same date on behalf of the National Chairman, and that it is no more responsive than that letter was,” Jengo wrote.
“We are entitled to conclude, and shall invite any court to conclude, that there are no such occasion and no such authority, and that the Notice was a bare instrument of ostracism issued without foundation and without power,” the letter reads.
The law firm says Tarawally’s demands for a retraction still stand and that the deadline for compliance remains unaffected.
“Our client’s demands stand as stated in our letter of the 20th day of September 2026; the time allowed for compliance runs unaffected, and upon its expiry we shall proceed as there indicated without further notice. All of our client’s rights remain fully reserved,” the letter warned.
*Background to the fight*
The row started after SLPP National Chairman, Jimmy Batilo Songa, on 17th September ordered Tarawally to stop using the SLPP logo and presenting himself as a member and flagbearer aspirant. Songa claimed he had confirmation from the Citizens Democratic Party (CDP) that Tarawally is still a member of the CDP – the party he formed to contest the 2018 elections.
On 19th September, the Party escalated it with a Public Notice signed by Moses Sellu Mambu disowning Tarawally and telling businesses and development partners not to deal with him under the SLPP banner.
Tarawally, a former Minister of Internal Affairs and Lands under the Ernest Koroma government who returned to the SLPP in 2018, insists he resigned from the CDP in 2018 and is a fully paid-up Grand Chief Patron and national delegate of the SLPP. His team has produced a copy of a 2018 resignation letter as proof.
His lawyers have threatened to sue for defamation, file a complaint under the Cyber Security and Crime Act, and petition the PPRC, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the ECOWAS Court if the notice is not withdrawn.
Copies of the latest letter were sent to the SLPP National Leader, President Julius Maada Bio, the National Chairman, Deputy National Chairman, Secretary General, Publicity Secretary and to Tarawally himself.
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