By Omar Bah
GDC leader Mamma Kandeh has condemned President Barrow’s exposé of how he intervened to get the corpse of former president Yahya Jammeh’s mother repatriated from Equatorial Guinea and buried in The Gambia.
Fed up with Jammeh’s verbals which include calling him “a donkey” President Barrow told his supporters at a meeting in Faji Kunda on Friday that Jammeh cried for help when his mother died in Equatorial Guinea and wanted her body to be repatriated and interred in The Gambia.
He explained at length how Jammeh contacted his host President Obiang who in turn contacted several presidents beseeching him to allow the body to be brought to The Gambia.
“I could have refused because I remember when former minister Buba Baldeh died in Senegal, Jammeh said his body will not be repatriated to The Gambia,” Barrow explained.
He said he doesn’t have any personal gripes with Jammeh.
“All these things that [Jammeh] is doing … I have nothing against him. This is why I don’t get angry over whatever he says. The Gambia is our country and we have to promote peace,” he said.
But reacting to the president’s comments at a rally in Giboro on Sunday, Mamma Kandeh said the President Barrow should “stop talking nonsense”.
“A leader should have the ability to keep secrets and know what to say and what not to say. If you are a leader when talking you should make sure that what you are saying makes sense… What we want in this country is peace and unity. I advise Barrow to be measured in his speeches or else let him shut up and allow those who can talk, do so. If you don’t know what you are saying you should be mute. I advise him not to use Jammeh’s late mother to score political points,” Kandeh charged.
UDP supporter Nyang Njie also commented on the matter: “Adama Barrow has stooped lower than maggots will on a dead carcass. Definitely he doesn’t understand what the oath of secrecy is all about. It is utterly distasteful narrating the death of Yahya Jammeh’s mother for political gains. Yes Jammeh abused his power by not granting Buba Baldeh and Kukoi a fitting funeral on home soil but that doesn’t give him brownie points for allowing Jammeh’s mom a fitting funeral on home soil… Honestly this man is not fit for purpose.”
“[President Barrow] is a disgrace to this nation. How can a president stand on a national platform and reduce himself to a storyteller and not a solution provider for our festering socio-economic woes?”
