By Mafugi Ceesay
Muhammed Magassy, the National Assembly Member for Basse, has told a press conference last evening that those advocating for President Adama Barrow to step down after serving three years are comparable to coup plotters.
He declared his support for President Barrow to serve a full five-year term, arguing that other accords of the 2016 Coalition including the National Assembly Members and local government election candidates to be selected on independent tickets were disregarded.
“So I am seeing President Barrow as a constitutional president and not as a coalition president since the agreements were not adhered to, and as a NAM, I swore to uphold the Constitution and it is that constitution that gives the five-year mandate to Barrow. Therefore I am supporting Barrow for five years,” he declared.
Magassy says he is a key stakeholder of Coalition 2016. “I support President Barrow’s initiative, ideas and agenda. I am part of the people who nominated Adama Barrow, campaigned for Barrow, and who have succeeded in making Adama Barrow the third president of this nation, The Gambia. So His Excellency, Adama Barrow is my president and he is the one that I am following, and he is the one I am giving my support.”
He said Gambians should not forget that Adama Barrow accepted to put his hat in the ring “at a critical moment when the Gambian people needed change most and sacrifice to lead.
“We campaigned for him and during the campaign, we told the people this is the man who is capable, this is the man who can unite us and the man who can bring development in the country, and due to these, the citizens believed in us and voted him in power. Barrow bear [sic] our flag because he had trust and confidence in us that we will not push him and get back, that we will not elect him and leave him alone, so I see it as honesty, to follow that man so that the agenda that we had will be realised.”
