A row has broken out among executive members of the North America branch of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) over the decision by its Chairman, Lawrence Sandi to controversially register and issue an SLPP membership card to Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella.

Dr. Yumkella was said to have been controversially issued the party card at the inauguration ceremony of the Philadelphia Chapter of the SLPP last week end.

The North America Secretary General, Saffa Woya-Rogers said in a statement that although he was in Philadelphia at the time of the registration, he was never informed by the Regional Chairman, Lawrence Sandi, adding that he only got the information from social media.

While apologizing to the membership for the incident, Woya-Rogers said efforts were being made to investigate the action of all those involved in the registration saga.

The Regional Deputy Chairman, Musa Kamara reacted angrily to the surreptitious registration and described the action of his Chairman as disgraceful. He said it was wrong for anyone to have issued a party registration card to Dr. Yumkella when over 500 of their members who have been paying their dues for the past three years have not been issued membership cards. “Where did u get that card from? This is a disgrace to this administration. I have great respect for Dr. Yumkella. But who is he to be given him special preference?”, Musa Kamara queried

The Deputy Chairman, like the Secretary General also called for an emergency meeting to look into the registration and issuance to Dr. Yumkella of the SLPP membership card.

Meanwhile, Lawrence Sandi has said in a statement issued last night that the registration card issued to Dr. Yumkella is one of the old party cards still being circulated in some of the Chapters.

This is the second time in less than a year that Dr. Yumkella has been named in a party registration fiasco. Few months ago, his campaign outfit, the KKY Movement released a receipt claiming the former UNIDO boss had been registered in Bo. That claimed was out rightly rejected by the Southern Region branch of the party.