By Mabinty M. Kamara
The executive and members of the Coalition for Change Party (C4C) have assured Sierra Leoneans that the resignation of the founder and leader of the party, Samuel Sam Sumana, will not affect the functionality of the party.
In a press conference at the party’s office on Tuesday, its officials confirmed the resignation of Mr Sam-Sumana from the party, ending months of speculation surrounding the political future of the former Vice President.
The leader of C4C in Parliament, Saa Emerson Lamina, said as much as they would miss the values Sam Sumana instilled in the party, they would still be a strong force in the political landscape of the country without him.
“The assurance that we can give you here is that the C4C will continue to strive. The banners of our mantra will continue to be raised even higher,” Lamina said.
The Chairman of the party, Tamba Sandy, also reechoed similar sentiments about the departure of Sam Sumana. Sandy said the party would continue following consultations within Kono district.
“It was like a tsunami, but the C4C Party is so strong that we were able to absorb it and we are moving forward. We have long since been expecting this because of the rumors we have been hearing, that’s the more reason we went to Kono to consult with all our members and we all resolved that we remain C4C and that we continue as a political party,” Sasndy said.
Sam Sumana is widely expected to join his former party- the All Peoples Congress (APC).
The former Vice President was controversially sacked by then President, Ernest Bai Koroma and expelled from the APC party in 2015, after a protracted power struggle.
Sam-Sumana later co-founded the C4C party and ran in the 2018 general elections as its flagbearer.
The party’s strong hold is Kono, the home district of the former VP and many of the party’s top officials. The party won 8 out of the 9 available parliamentary seats in the district and overwhelmingly won the local council elections there.
The APC on Tuesday evening confirmed that it had received an application from Sam-Sumana requesting to join the party.
Sidi Yaya Tunis, Acting Publicity Secretary of APC, told Politico that the party’s leadership had received the letter personally from Sam-Sumana himself.
“Chief Sam-Sumana has resigned from the C4C and has submitted his application for membership with the APC to the chairman at the NAC [National Advisory Committee] meeting held at the party’s headquarters today [Tuesday],” Tunis said.
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