By Omar Bah
A former youth mobiliser of the Gambia For 5 Years and Peace-Building group has claimed that President Barrow spent D6 million on the group.
Omar Sanyang, who has since joined the United Democratic Party, alleged that though he hadn’t seen or benefitted from the money, Dou Sanno, the deputy youth adviser to the president, told members of the movement in a meeting that the president had spent D6 million to facilitate the activities of the group.
The group, which is widely regarded as pro-government, was set up to counter the 3 Years Jotna movement which demanded President Barrow keep his transitional promise and step down from office at the end of three years. The Gambia For 5 Years movement has maintained that it is apolitical and that it was motivated to defend the five-year constitutional mandate.
Addressing a meeting on Monday at the UDP Manjai Bureau where he officially announced his decision to join the party, Mr Sanyang alleged that the government had hijacked the movement and used it as a political tool.
He claimed that when the movement’s former president Naffie Sonko was taken ill, they approached President Barrow to underwrite the cost of her overseas treatment but the presidency “didn’t respond on time and she eventually lost her life a day before they were ready to take her to Dakar”.
“It was when she died that they brought D50,000 but we rejected it because when we needed the money they refused to give it to us,” he said.
Sanyang said a few days after her death, the group was informed of a pending payment due from her.
“We approached Dou Sanno and his colleagues for them to tell the president to make the payment. It was during that meeting that Mr Sanno told us the president cannot give us money again because he had already spent D6 million on the group. But I asked him to tell me who they gave the money to because I cannot remember any of our members discussing it,” he said.
Sanyang said he demanded that Dou Sanno tell him the person the president gave the D6 million to because he would not want to be called before a future commission of inquiry.
Reaction
When contacted for reaction, Mr Dou Sanno,explained: “I do not even know this Omar Sanyang. I want to tell them that this is not how to look for money. If you join politics for the sake of money you will keep jumping from one end to another like a frog and if you are not lucky any day that you come across a big snake, it will just swallow you and I can candidly tell Mr Sanyang that the UDP is that snake and it will swallow him. These are shenanigans orchestrated by UDP people.”
Mr Sanno said NPP is not a party that dishes out money to people. “Dou Sanno does not even see millions. I have never seen, received or given out D6 million to anyone,” he scoffed.
