SLPP Legal Team Fires Back at Musa Tarawally’s Lawyers, Vows to Defend Party in Court
Sahid Bangura The legal team representing the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) has rejected demands from lawyers for Hon. Alhaji Musa Tarawally over a public notice concerning his status within the party, maintaining that the SLPP stands by its position on his eligibility to present himself as an intended flagbearer candidate.
In a letter dated 23 September 2026 and addressed to Jengo, Sam & Partners, lawyers for SLPP National Publicity Secretary Moses Sellu Mambu said they had received the correspondence sent on behalf of Tarawally and were instructed to respond.
The SLPP legal team, GEVÃO & Associates, said the party maintains its position regarding Tarawally’s eligibility to hold himself out as an intended flagbearer candidate of the Sierra Leone People’s Party.
The response followed a legal demand from Jengo, Sam & Partners challenging an SLPP public notice dated 19 September 2026 and calling for its withdrawal and retraction. The lawyers representing Tarawally had also demanded particulars concerning the basis of the notice and threatened further legal action if their demands were not addressed.
Rather than withdrawing the notice, the SLPP legal team told Tarawally’s lawyers to proceed with whatever legal steps they had indicated in the final paragraph of their correspondence.
“We are required and willing to defend our client’s right in any court of law,” the SLPP lawyers stated in their response.
The latest exchange escalates an ongoing dispute over Tarawally’s membership of the SLPP and his claim to be an aspirant for the party’s flagbearership.
The dispute intensified after SLPP National Chairman Jimmy Batilo Songa directed Tarawally to stop presenting himself as an SLPP member or flagbearer aspirant, citing correspondence from the Citizens Democratic Party (CDP) concerning his membership status.
Tarawally has rejected the dual-membership claim, maintaining that he resigned from the CDP in 2018 and subsequently returned to the SLPP. His lawyers have similarly argued that he remains a fully paid-up SLPP member and that the party’s actions were not supported by the required disciplinary procedures.
With the SLPP now formally signalling its readiness to defend its position in court, the dispute could move beyond the party’s internal processes and into formal legal proceedings.