President Adama Barrow and Lawyer Ousainu Darboe
Photo Credit: State Of Mic
By Buba Gagigo
During his address to his supporters in Sukuta on Saturday evening, President Adama Barrow said he now believes that the UDP Leader Ousainu Darboe would die as an opposition.
“An old man once told me your this Dad (Darboe), you can take everything from him apart from being a lawyer and an opposition. He will maintain these two until the day he will die. I believe what the old man told me. We cannot take being a lawyer from him and being an opposition. He opposed Jawara, Jammeh and now myself. Then he will die as an opposition,” Barrow told his supporters.
The president added the former Vice President would not get anywhere the privileges he (Barrow) gave him in the country.
“He was an opposition for 20 years. I joined him in opposition but he never gave me butut throughout that time. In politics, I used my money. If he needs help, I will take my own money and put it in. We fought until 2016, he was arrested. We were doing everything during his trial until he was taken to prison. I became a candidate and won the election. I took him out of prison, I made him Minister of Foreign Affairs. I made him Vice President. Who can do that for Ousainu Darboe?” the president asked.
He also refuted UDP Leader’s claim that he negotiated from the Chinese government the funds for construction of the URR roads and bridges.
“He went to Basse and said things that are not true. He don’t even know the way we got these roads. When I was swearing-in in 2017, that was the time I talked about these Basse roads. The Chinese picked it from there. It was then I went to China and they gave it to The Gambia. This is a presidential project not ministerial. I was invited for a state visit in China. I sat with their President. That’s where they gave me these roads. I know he is old and he easily forgot, but I will remind him because we are still young,” President Barrow said.
Also on the URR roads, the Minister of Tourism and Culture, Hamat Bah, said UDP is Bankrupt of ideas, that’s the reason Darboe is claiming ownership of the roads and bridges in URR.
“I had that Abubacarr Darboe [referring to Ousainu Darboe) said in Basse the bridges and roads came to the Gambia because he negotiated for it. The Constitution said the foreign policy of the country should be dictated and directed by the President. This is the work you were doing on behalf of the President. For him to claim that he negotiated that, the UDP is bankrupt of ideas and they have nothing to present to the Gambian People. They have nothing, they can present to the Gambian People,” Hamat Bah told NPP supporters in Sukuta on Saturday.
The Tourism Minister, Hamat Bah and President Barrow made these remarks in Sukuta in a rally organized by the National People’s People and APRC on Saturday.