Speaking in an exclusive interview With The Standard, yesterday, Colley, who doubles as mayor of the Kanifing municipality, explained:
“That is nothing. For us, even if we want, we can call the congress tomorrow. Everything is well in the APRC. We do not have any problem at all. We thought it would be good to go to congress and we put all our plans together. Financially, we are fine. We do not have any problem of any sort. It was postponed for a reason and the reason is not something one would hide.
“We are doing it in Kanilai and we are doing it in a proper way. We have gone around the country. We were received with great enthusiasm wherever we went to in the provinces. You can see the people are very happy about it. We were well-received and everything went fine. It was a matter of timing. It coincided with some programmes and we felt we could not hold the congress along with those programmes. That is the reason, nothing else. It is only a change of date. I cannot recall the date but I know it is going to happen in April,” Mayor Colley asserted.
One of the issues the ruling party apparatchiks are likely to discuss at the all-important congress will be the expulsion of some APRC members including National Assembly Members. Asked about the reasons for the expulsions, the national mobiliser quipped:
“Dawda Manneh was convicted of drug peddling. Should we maintain that person in our party? I told you this party is a very organised party. We have disciplinary committees. We have a committee on discipline. If you violate the party rules, of course you can face expulsion. That shows you how well organised the party is because it is not afraid of kicking one of her key members out. That can simply tell you how strong we are. When you act in a way that does not conform with the party regulations and rules, there are no sacred cows in the party. So that is why all those people were expelled. They went against the rules of the party. They went against the rules of the party. You cannot say everything publicly but I would tell you that if you don’t violate the party rules, nothing will happen to you.”
For details of Mayor Colley’s interview, read our Bantaba column on Friday.
Author: Sainey Darboe
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