By Omar Bah
President Barrow has said challenging him at the polls on December 4th will be an exercise in futility and told his opponents to join him.
He told a mass rally at Bakadaji near his home village of Mankamang Kunda on Sunday: “There is no need to go against me in this election because there will be no contest. Going against me will translate to waste of time and resources. Let us all come together because nobody will come from outside to develop this country for us. It is only troublemakers who will leave the NPP – a party in power – to join the opposition. But even on the Day of Judgment some people will be forced to enter paradise.”
On his party’s alliance with the APRC, he commented: “I am confident that with all these political parties on our side, we are certainly going to win. I thank and praise the APRC leadership. It has never happened anyway in the world where a party you defeated in an election turned around to support your bid for re-election.”
Underscoring his prospects in the approaching election, he stated: “Don’t allow anyone to fool you. This election is going to be a referendum on The Gambia. It will be about the country’s progress or retrogression and I am convinced that the Gambian people, especially youths in this country, don’t want to vote for retrogression. Voting for the opposition represents voting for backwardness. The solution is NPP.”
GDC
Almost every speaker at the rally called on Mamma Kandeh, President Barrow’s main political sparring partner in Jimara, “to swallow his pride” and join Barrow. At least 500 supporters of the GDC and UDP were reported to have decamped to the NPP and some of them were presented at the rally.
The NPP deputy national mobiliser, Dodou Sanno called Mamma Kandeh to swallow his pride and join Barrow and the NPP before “it is too late”.
He said the GDC “is all but finished in Jimara and Gambia in general”.
“When Mamma Kandeh knew President Barrow was coming to Jimara he [Kandeh] rushed and started distributing cola nuts to villages in the constituency and invited them for a meeting. But all the villages except five villages rejected his cola nut. We receive information that he slaughtered a cow and anticipated to received those villages but none of them turned up. It was yesterday [Saturday] that he returned to Kombo and surrendered Jimara to President Barrow. It is all over,” Sanno said.
The NPP deputy national president Demba Sabally who was once an executive member of the GDC said: “I never mention Mamma Kandeh in a political rally but effective today I want to appeal to him to pack all what he has and join President Barrow.”
