By Omar Wally
The youth mobiliser of opposition GDC has reacted to Bakau politician, Dudu Kassa Jaata’s public ruing of his decision to join their party.
Speaking in a Standard exclusive published yesterday, Mr Jatta an erstwhile key member of the UDP, said his decision to abandon his mother party and join Mamma Kandeh’s party was “the biggest political mistake” of his life. He said GDC made him third-in-command but he left because “it [was] not the right party” for him.
But in a swift reaction, GDC’s youth mobiliser, MC Cham Jnr, said he wholly agreed with Kassa that the GDC was not the right party for him.
Asked why he would concur with Jatta who was clearly trying to denigrate his party, Cham explained: “We do not entertain any form of personal attack against any party leader or supporters of any party and we do not entertain criticism by insulting. Kassa Jaata was trying to use the GDC during the [2016] campaign period to attack Honourable Ousainou Darboe [personally]. On several occasions, Kassa tried to insult Ousainou Darboe at our rallies and we stopped him. We are a mature and disciplined party and we do not encourage such. So Kassa is right when he says he regretted joining the GDC because we did not allow him to use our platform to insult Ousainou Darboe.”
He added: “Kassa could only attack Darboe if he wanted to by criticising him but not by insulting him. Kassa claimed that his nephew, Yusupha Jaiteh, our party’s deputy leader was helping him and when he returned to the country [from exile late 2016], he decided to join us and we welcomed him, but Kassa was trying to use that opportunity to attack Ousainou Darboe and the UDP, because he was very angry with them but we stopped him.”
Cham said Pateh Jallow and Lama Barry, members of his party, were present when he was told not to give Dudu Kassa Jatta microphone again if Kassa was going to use the platform to insult Ousainou Darboe. “At the GDC, we don’t entertain insults, we discuss issues, policies and we criticise constructively and that is why he could not continue with us,” he said.
Cham said Pateh Jallow refused to give Kassa the microphone at many of their rallies whenever he wanted to insult Darboe and that Kassa became “confused” and eventually decided to go back to the UDP.
“Regarding Kassa’s claim that he was third-in-command at GDC, I will say with due respect that, that is not true. GDC only has a party leader and deputy party leader,” he clarified.
He said Kassa was in the logistics committee and was given the responsibility to handle the logistics arrangements such as the vehicles during the campaign period.
“GDC has a structure that has been in place well before Kassa joined us. His name is not at the IEC as part of those who registered the GDC and he was not third-in-command,” MC Cham refuted.
