By Tabora Bojang
UDP leader Ousainu Darboe has said that Kanifing Municipality mayor Talib Bensouda who broke away from the party to launch a new movement, had told him during an internal party meeting that he did not intend to vie as a presidential candidate in the 2026 election.
Darboe explained that following a row between Yankuba Darboe, the chairman of West Coast Region, Banjul Mayor Rohey Malick Lowe and Bensouda, he convened a meeting with the trio alongside Mansakonko chairman Landing Sanneh in the presence of some party elders in July to advise them to desist from what they were doing
“At that meeting, I invited Alhaji Modou Sanneh, former deputy speaker and Alhaji Jobe Kanteh, a founding member of the party. I asked these elders to join me and advise these four. During the meeting Rohey said she was not interested in contesting the 2026 election. Yankuba and Landing said the same thing. Talib also said the same thing. He said he was only creating a gap between himself and other rivals for 2031. Alhaji Modou Sanneh told them that the future of this party belonged to them and therefore they should not engage in fratricide. I believed Talib when he gave the assurance. But it turned out that he made me believe in something that did not exist,” Darboe said in an interview with Eye Africa.
Darboe added: “But when he [Talib] said he does not intend to run for 2026, Rohey countered and told him that he was not speaking the truth. But at the time, Rohey knew something that I did not know,”
He also dismissed suggestions that Talib was not aware that he [Darboe] was going to apply for the party’s flag bearer position. “What stops him from asking me if I was going to apply or not? They knew very well that I had applied because applications are put on video when they are received,” he said.
Mr Darboe further stressed that he was “shocked” with Talib for breaking away from the party simply because he was not selected as a flag bearer. But he averred that he was not surprised because Talib and his allies have been cooking the plot for a long time, citing a statement by Kemo Bojang who he said predicted there was going to be a rift after the flag bearer selection during a television programme.
He said he had defended Talib on many occasions amid criticisms from other party members on social media and other places. “I have on many occasions defended Talib from criticisms by some party members. Some were even accusing me of making him feel proud,” he recalled.
Darboe also criticised former UDP campaign manager Karafa Sonko who resigned and joined Talib’s Unite Change for Movement, accusing him of having a mindset that a Mandinka cannot win a presidential election in The Gambia. “In fact, I publicly confronted Karafa and told him that such views are false and he should stop peddling them and go and work,” he said.
