By Amadou Jadama
Henry Gomez, leader of the Gambia Party for Democracy and Progress (GPDP), has confirmed that President Barrow doled out monies to all the parties in the governing coalition to sponsor their candidates in the past elections.
Gomez, whose GPDP is one of such parties, now works as a special adviser in the State House.
Speaking to The Standard on Thursday at his State House office, he narrated: “First of all, I am apologising for the statement made by one of our executive members on the Foroyaa newspaper that the money was not given to us by President Barrow. The statement is wrong. He didn’t know.
“I want to make it very clear to Gambians for them to know the truth. President Barrow is right. He gave money to political parties, and my party was not exempted. We received the money from the president to support our candidates in the parliamentary election, and my party is grateful for this great gesture the president has done for us.”
“God said if someone does good for you, before you tell God thank you, tell that person who has done it for you, thank you, and Gambians really have to be grateful to President Barrow. Yes we voted for him but that does not mean that if he does something good, we should not thank him. We have to thank him for that.
“He could have said, let me only support the party that I came from but he has not done that. So all political parties, whether they deny or admit it, we were supported by President Barrow. Let us call a spade a spade.
“President Barrow gave money to my party and I was the one as party leader who collected that money from Honourable James Gomez, Minister of Fisheries. It was given to him by President Adama Barrow, and when we were discussing about the money former vice president Fatoumata Jallow-Tambanjang was there.”
Asked how much he received for his party, Gomez replied: “No the figure is not important… President Barrow said it openly that he was going to sponsor all the political parties whether you support his agenda or not. He supported all the political parties. I can attest to that. All the monies were given to Minister James Gomez and he is the one who divided the money to all the political parties. What he said is the truth, he gave money to us. Let us be honest to each other.”
He added: “I am appealing to the young people of this country that President Barrow is on their side, and let them not be fooled by few individuals who are hungry for power.”
