The political storm surrounding SLPP flagbearer aspirant Hon. Alhaji Musa Tarawally has taken another dramatic turn, with fresh statements from within the Citizens Democratic Party (CDP) throwing serious questions over the basis of SLPP National Chairman Jimmy Batilo Songa’s decision to publicly challenge Tarawally’s political status.
According to the current CDP National Chairman, Victor O. King, Hon. Musa Tarawally ceased to be a member of the CDP in 2018 when he formally resigned from the party after declaring his return to the SLPP. King, who was the CDP Secretary General at the time Tarawally’s resignation was submitted, is reported to have been the recipient of the resignation letter dated June 15, 2018. The position is further supported by four CDP regional chairmen, who said they witnessed Tarawally’s departure from the CDP and his subsequent return to the SLPP. Tarawally has also maintained that since his resignation, he stopped paying CDP membership subscriptions and ceased participating in the party’s meetings and activities.
However, former CDP Chairman Gibril Thullah has publicly maintained that Tarawally resigned from the party in 2018 after the presidential election, while four CDP regional chairmen have also reportedly stated that they witnessed his resignation and subsequent return to the SLPP. This growing contradiction makes Songa’s intervention increasingly difficult to dismiss as a simple administrative matter.
The most troubling question is therefore why Chairman Songa moved so aggressively on information that is clearly disputed even within the CDP itself. On September 17, Songa instructed Tarawally to stop presenting himself as an SLPP member or flagbearer aspirant, relying on a September 3 communication from the CDP Secretary General which said Tarawally had not formally resigned. But Tarawally has produced a resignation letter dated June 15, 2018, while former CDP officials have backed his account.
This is where Songa’s conduct deserves intense public scrutiny. If the chairman acted on information that was incomplete, contested or obtained without consulting the relevant leadership structures of the CDP, then the episode raises serious questions about whether the machinery of the ruling party is being used to settle political scores. Tarawally’s lawyers have already challenged the chairman’s action, arguing that the SLPP’s own disciplinary procedures were not followed and giving Songa seven days to withdraw the disputed communication.
The bigger issue is not merely Hon. Musa Tarawally. It is the dangerous precedent created when a senior ruling-party official appears to use a disputed membership question to publicly discredit a political aspirant. If the evidence is contradictory, why rush to condemn? If the matter is genuinely administrative, why turn it into a public political weapon? Chairman Songa owes the public clear answers. Until the competing records are properly examined, any attempt to portray Tarawally as a dual-party member remains a contested political claim, not an established fact.
For Chairman Songa, the controversy should be a warning that political authority comes with responsibility. A party chairman is expected to protect the credibility of his organisation, not create avoidable controversies that can make the leadership appear politically vindictive. If Tarawally indeed resigned from the CDP in 2018, as former CDP leaders and regional chairmen maintain, then the public deserves to know why an old and disputed membership issue has suddenly become the weapon of choice against a sitting SLPP flagbearer aspirant.
The question now hanging over the SLPP leadership is simple: Was this a genuine membership verification exercise, or did Chairman Jimmy Batilo Songa allow a disputed CDP claim to become a political instrument against Musa Tarawally? Until that question is convincingly answered, the controversy will continue to fuel suspicion that something much bigger is happening behind the scenes.
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