By Lamin Cham
Sheikh Tijan Hydara, the leader of the Gambia Alliance for National Unity, GANU, has said President Barrow’s recent comments suggesting that he knew of an operation where jujus were buried under the head of dead bodies at a certain graveyard to save the UDP leader Ousainu Darboe from imprisonment are most unfortunate.
Last week, President Barrow told his party NPP media that during the trial of UDP leader Ousainu Darboe some party officials came to him for money to carry out a marabout’s advice for them to bury jujus under dead bodies. The president’s comments became serious subject of ridicule in the hands of his political opponents.
The GANU leader, who was addressing a huge and very successful rally at Tujereng – Nemakuta Saturday, said the president’s comments could ordinarily be misconstrued to mean that he is capable of killing people if he has the need for, one of the main things his coalition accused former president Jammeh of.
“It is ironical that Barrow should say such things. I am not quoting hearsay. It is all recorded in videos shared all over the world. Nobody but the president himself is saying this,” Mr Hydara told his rally to a hilarious laughter.
The GANU leader also used the occasion to lament the poor health service delivery faced by Gambian women of child bearing age who die in massive numbers at labour. ”Yes, we have doctors and nurses graduating annually but they don’t have the tools, medicines to treat our people. So every now and then death is reported of a mother or child during delivery at our health facilities. This is unbearably painful and it all goes to show the level of incompetence of this regime which we must all use our head to change this December,” Mr Hydara said.
The GANU leader said his party’s idea is to tap the very best of our graduates from the medical school for further specialised training in relevant fields of health so that the country can be saved from the unnecessary deaths from preventable and manageable conditions.
Hydara, a native of Brufut and son of late Sheriff Kebba Hydara, added that GANU has an elaborate programme for all the key sectors of the economy, ranging from agriculture, to youth matters. He thanked his supporters around the country for turning up massively and defying heavy rains to converge at the Tujereng Nema-kuta.
