(1)     VP Sam Sumana To Be Replaced Next Month

By Our Diplomatic Editor

Senior State House sources are briefing the media on a possible replacement of the current Vice President, Chief Alhaji Samuel Sam Sumana ahead of crucial elections in November this year. The President hardly appears in public these days with his embattled Vice President.

Relationship between the President and his Vice took a nose – dive immediately after the satellite television network, Al-Jazeera screened an undercover documentary on the banned timber export in November last year, which featured the VP in very bad light.

The President is reportedly holding high-level consultative meetings at party levels to talk his Vice President out of a possible hold out in office. “The President wants a peaceful replacement of his loyal Vice because it will help steady the ship”, said a Senior Presidential Adviser.

A Senior Presidential Aide told the “Global Times” last night that President Ernest Bai Koroma was expected to make a public statement about the political future of his Vice President early next month. “The Vice President is a loyal party man… we expect him to play a front role in the party re-election campaign ahead of the November 17 elections”, said a Presidential Adviser.

The President has not given any clear hint about who will succeed VP Sam Sumana, observed an executive member of the ruling party. “We will whole-heartedly support whoever the President chooses as his running mate ahead of the crucial November 17 elections,” vowed a key APC official in Kono, the birth place of VP Sam Sumana.

Vice President Sam Sumana was recently spotted in Kono, where he launched the APC party’s biometric voter registration process.