By Tabora Bojang
Brikama Area Council chairman and UDP executive member Yankuba Darboe has charged that the last five years of the Barrow regime have been marked by “glorified corruption, heightened crime rates, and maternal and infant deaths.
Darboe warned that this in addition to the administration’s “sustained attacks” on strategic national assets like Gamtel, SeneGambia Bridge and Gambia Ports Authority, dissuade Gambians against voting for President Barrow in December.
“As we head to the 5th December election, it is important that Gambians take stock of Barrow’s record in the past five years during which about 70 children lost their lives to poisonous cough syrup which was allowed into the country by his regime,” Yanks told a gathering of supporters at the UDP UK fund raising Saturday night.
He added: “Between 2023 to 2024, 354 women lost their lives during childbirth. In 2025, about 130 women lost their lives during childbirth. In 2024, there were no ferry services between Barra and Banjul for weeks leading to youths, elderly men and women being carried on shoulders of people. In 2024, about 1,600 Gambians youths died on the ‘back way’ [irregular migration route]. The Gambia registered 29 murder cases in 2024 and 24 in 2025,” Yanks stated.
He also said national institutions have been divested under Barrow. “They mortgaged the SeneGambia Bridge. They sold [sic] the Gambia Ports Authority. They sold Gamtel. Sold Gamcel. Sold Mega Bank and they even sold Mile 2 Prison. For these reasons, if we give Barrow another five years, they will sell The Gambia itself. This is not a five years that we as a country should be proud of,” he lamented.
Mr Darboe said 5th December provides “a massive opportunity for Gambians to change the current regime and replace it with UDP’s Ousainu Darboe whose leadership will introduce sweeping changes in the state of affairs of the country.
“Ousainu Darboe is not just going to be a leader but he is going to be the father of the nation. And as a father of all Gambians, nobody will be sidelined. Nobody will be excluded. No more will we have a president who will stand on platforms and telling people to vote out a chairman before he can build a market for them. No more will we have a president who will demolish people’s canteens where they earn their livelihoods,” Yanks remarked.