By Omar Bah
UDP leader Ousainu Darboe has denied that he was ever given money by Pa Njie ‘Girigara’ in exchange for a ministerial position.
The businessman, now strong supporter of the NPP, was quoted by Freedom Newspaper last year to have stated that he gave Darboe D1 million in exchange to make him a minister if the UDP won in a certain election and publicly challenged Darboe to deny his assertions.
But reacting to the allegations for the first time in a Standard exclusive, Darboe said: “I have always felt that I should not edify the ravings and rantings of a person like Mr Njie by responding to them. Let me say this. I have never sat with Mr Njie at any time when he gave me a million dalasis. I was on tour in the provinces, and he met Mr Manneh and offered to help on condition that he has a company that deals in call cards. He wanted us to give him an exclusive contract, exclusive rights for that. He also wanted to be appointed minister. My response to Mr Manneh was that when it comes to the call cards, there’s no way that we can make such a commitment because this has to go through the proper procedures or procuring. For a ministerial position, that is left to the prerogative of the president, which could be considered. I never gave that to him as an incentive. I think his company was called Westcom. He wanted Westcom to order all cards for Gamtel. I said well, that, no. We cannot give that. You have to go through the normal procedures. He also told Mr Manneh specifically, what ministry he wanted – Communications. I told Mr Manneh, wouldn’t that be conflict of interest if he is minister for Communication and wanting his company to be supplying Gamtel call cards? I told him that would be conflict of interest. That’s it,” Darboe said.
