By Omar Bah
Former People’s Progressive Party (PPP) leader, Omar Jallow (OJ), has told The Standard that “it is incorrect” for President Barrow to say he gave money to his party.
Jallow who served as agriculture minister under both presidents Jawara and Barrow told The Standard over the weekend: “The PPP has never received one butut from President Adama Barrow. All the monies that were given to political parties were from the Coalition funds. These were monies collected nationally and in the diaspora. To say that the president personally gave money to the PPP never happened and we have never received anything from the Coalition either. You can ask Alhagie S Darboe.”
President Barrow recently stated that he financially supported all the political parties in the Coalition during the parliamentary and local government elections.
But OJ refuted: “I would like to make it very clear that PPP was one of the three parties that contributed to pay for Adama Barrow’s deposit as a candidate at the IEC. We have never requested any butut from the Coalition during the whole campaign for the presidency.”
He said the Coalition established a finance committee headed by Fatoumatta Jallow-Tambajang as chairperson, with James Gomez, Alhagie Darboe of the UDP and Edi Jallow of PDOIS as members and that all monies spent by the Coalition passed through them.
He added: “After the election, we had an executive meeting where it was announced that each member of the Coalition will be given D20,000. I asked them what the money was meant for. Fatoumatta Jallow told me when we were going to accompany the presidential candidate on the tour, we were supposed to be given imprest but at the time there was a shortage of money. But I told her as far as I was concerned we have won. This is how I returned the D20,000 that was given to me and proposed to them that it could be used to fund subsequent elections,” he said.
