By Tabora Bojang
The National Assembly Member for Foni Bondali, Kaddy Camara, has confronted her fellow lawmakers in the National Assembly accusing them of playing double standards with their condemnation of the Kanilai attack on UDP voter registration coordinating committee members last Saturday.
The attack which left one party official injured, when a mob smashed the window glass of the UDP vehicle, received public condemnations among them Foni Kansala lawmaker Musa Amul Nyassi.
During yesterday’s adjournment debate at the assembly, several other members including Touma Njie of Banjul South, Sainey Touray of Jarra East and Dembo Camara of Illiassa, joined Nyassi in the condemnations.
“I condemned the incident. The Gambia belongs to all of us and nobody should be barred from entering anywhere, or be attacked for entering any place,” Ms Njie stated.
But responding to her colleagues, Camara registered her disappointment with the condemnations of her colleagues, accusing them of being “insensitive” to the people of Foni.
“I am born in Foni, I live in Foni and I will die in Foni so I will not allow any member to come and provoke the Foni people. I will not take it.
Honourable Speaker, there are so many incidents that happened to the people of Foni but none of them [NAMs] stood in this chamber and condemned those incidents. Are they telling us that the Foni people are not Gambians? Of course, we are Gambians like them!
“We [the APRC] were attacked in Kanfenda, attacked in Busumbala and we were also attacked in Mankamang Kunda. They [the NAMs] did not feel the pain in those days but [they do] now that is why they stood here and talked about the Kanilai incident,” she queried.
The APRC lawmaker thanked her party leadership for “demonstrating good leadership” in handling the incident, saying, “We are an opposition with a difference.”
She cautioned “political leaders attempting to ignite chaos” in the country, saying “if they do and this country gets burnt, we are all going to burn together.”
“I am calling on the women not to allow politicians to use us as their tools. We are not their tools but citizens of this country and whatever we decide that is what is going to happen because we are the majority.”
Speaking earlier, the NAM for Foni Kansala, told the assembly that he wants to assure his constituents that he is not going to “mortgage” their seat and that anytime he wanted to switch allegiance to another party, he will “honourably” resign and allow them to hold a by-election.
Mr Nyassi had condemned the attack on the UDP team in Kanilai.
The Standard has learnt some members of his APRC stronghold constituency criticised him for making the condemnation and even questioned his loyalty to the former ruling party.
