By Tabora Bojang

The leader of the United Democratic Party has said claims by President Adama Barrow that he financed the opposition party during his time there is “misleading.”
Barrow claimed during a meeting in Ebo Town last month, that the UDP never spent a “dime” on him in the 20 years he spent with the party and he was the one investing his resources.
“When UDP members, including Darboe, were jailed, they turned to me and begged me to contest. They spent an entire month convincing me. At that time, the campaign budget was set at 1.5 million dalasis, but the contributions from party members, both at home and abroad, totaled only D210,000. I had to dig deep into my pocket and contribute over D1M. If money had been my reason for entering politics, I would never have taken the risk of contesting the 2016 presidential election,” Barrow had said.
In his rebuttal during an interview with QTV, Darboe said; “President Barrow has never financed the UDP. He is misleading the Gambian people. He was talking to people who could not engage him, who could not challenge him. But Barrow won’t sit here facing me and make such a misleading statement, with all due respect to the highest office that he holds. When you hold certain positions in society, there are certain things you should refrain from saying because you invite reactions that are unbefitting to the office that you hold. If he [Barrow] was financing the party, why would he be asking for money from the diaspora when he was the coalition flag bearer?”.
The UDP leader said in 2007, the UDP paid Barrow’s deposit to contest for NAM before “we decided to withdraw.” “If he was the millionaire that he claimed to be, then he would have paid his own deposit. As head of state, he should be mindful of what he says in respect of the highest office that he holds,” Darboe said.
When asked if he missed former UDP campaign manager Momodou Sabally who quit the party and joined the ruling NPP, Darboe said: “I really don’t. I used to say if Ebrima Dibba leaves UDP today, it will shock me and it will take a while before I recover from that shock. The same goes for Mboge Saidykhan, Fatou Janneh or Ara Demba. If those people leave UDP, I will start thinking that something is fundamentally wrong. As for Sabally, yes he will come to me every time and virtually integrated into my family but he is not in the same position as Ebrima Dibba. Sabally was APRC all along and he decided to join UDP, but our party believes in one thing: that a true UDP member does not leave UDP at all. So really some people saw opportunities in the UDP, they came and exploited those opportunities and benefited from it”.