By Omar Bah
The former Majority Leader and current chairman of the opposition Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation Construction, Fabakary Tombong Jatta, yesterday said that it is unfair to generally associate the party with allegations of wrong doing by former president Jammeh. “The supposed wrong doing by Jammeh was not done on behalf of the APRC as a party,” Jatta told journalists at a press conference last evening.
He said even if Jammeh is found wanting, that doesn’t mean he was acting under the party’s principle or its manifesto.
“Our message must be clear that all those alleged to have committed wrongs were not doing it in the name of the party and that include former President Jammeh. I believe if there is any wrong doing by Yahya Jammeh they should be directed at him as an individual and not the APRC in general because the party was not behind anything associated with the allegations,” Jatta said.
FTJ, as he is commonly called, also declared that if some members of the party are found wanting including Jammeh, then that is unfortunate and let them pay the price, “but you cannot impose a collective punishment by banning the party. Yahya Jammeh is not APRC, but only an element of the party. Can Yahya Jammeh get all what he got without the support of us all? So what I want to emphasize here is that Jammeh is only an element in the party, an important one for that matter but that’s all”.
Mr Jatta further said the allegations against Yahya Jammeh do not in anyway mean that there are no other good elements in the party. “I challenge anybody to tell me Fabakary this is what you have done wrong. We need to understand that in any party there must be people doing something bad, but that should not be blamed on everybody or the party as a collective body,” he said.
The former Majority Leader said he has nothing against people facing punishment if they are guilty of rong doing but it will be wrong to generalize blame.
On whether the APRC has any chance of winning election in the near future, Mr. Jatta said: “If you ask me, I will tell yes, possibly the next Presidential election because power comes and goes in a democracy and that’s what we believe in.”
Mr. Jatta also took time to criticize some aspects of the way and manner the parliamentary election was conducted.
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