Senior members of the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) have been reacting to the decision announced by their party member Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella that he was quitting the race for the party’s presidential ticket. Yumkella has quit in disgust at tactics from supporters of a rival for the SLPP bid Mr. Maada Bio. Mr. Bio and his supporters belong to a faction of the SLPP nicknamed as PAOPA (meaning, BY FORCE). They have brought much disrepute to the SLPP that is now in a morose and melancholic morass.

Many of the SLPP members spoke to Awareness Times Newspaper.

SLPP Western Area Regional Vice Chairman Honorable Manso Dumbuya described Yumkella as an immature politician.

On a telephone interview with this paper, Hon. Manso Dumbuya said Kandeh Yumkella lacks patience as he just joined the SLPP in less than 2 years and had opted to run for the flagbearer race of the party and he has already smelled a defeat, now he has quit. He went on to accuse Dr. Kandeh Yumkella of sponsoring several court cases against the party and he has exhausted and still could not find a breakthrough, so he quit.

He added that “Kandeh Yumkella’s father was a founding member of the SLPP, he struggled in the party, he was prisoned and died in the SLPP, he never quit and his brothers too. Kandeh didn’t show any sincerity to the party, sorry he came from the Yumkella family”.

The SLPP strongman ended by saying that thank God, they didn’t suspend Kandeh, he suspended himself. And considered the decision of Kandeh Yumkella to quit the flagbearer race in the SLPP as a blessing in disguise as he called on all members in the party to put aside their differences and push forward.

Similarly, former Chairman and Leader of SLPP and flagbearer candidate, John Oponjo Benjamin has called on Dr. Kandeh Yumkella to reconsider his decision to quit the SLPP. “I will appeal to him to reconsider his decision to leave the party. He should not take a hasty decision to quit because of a minority group in the party” Mr. Benjamin admonished.

JOB as he fondly called asked KKY to join him in the fight for the SLPP flagbearer race.  He frankly stated that he doesn’t want KKY to just contest the 2018 election in the name of contesting in fact KKY has just registered for the first time in the electioneering process of the country and need to be patient in the SLPP.

However, Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Yumkella has yesterday Monday July 3, 2017 informed his supporters, pressmen and the public that he has suspended his bid for the flagbearer of the SLPP. “I hereby wish to inform the membership of the SLPP and the public at large that I am, with immediate effect suspending my bid for the flagbearer of the SLPP while I strongly and robustly maintain my bid and campaign for the presidency of the Republic of Sierra Leone, which will now move into higher gear”. He disclosed that he will work with others to form a Grand Coalition for Progressives in a collective effort to bring hope and transformation in Sierra Leone.

KYY accused the current National Executive of the SLPP of refusing to respect the constitution and play by the rules that are set out in the SLPP constitution.