By Momodou Darboe
A source within the President Barrow Youth for National Development (BYND) has alleged that a large number of the 200 motor bikes donated to it by an unidentified person or group are unaccounted for.
An anonymous individual sometime 2019 made a magnanimous donation of 224 motorbikes to BYND to ostensibly aid in its much-touted community development initiatives such as sinking boreholes, enhancing horticultural production, reducing youth unemployment amongst others.
But sources close to BYND revealed to The Standard that a good number of the motor bikes have found themselves in wrong hands and as a result, could not be deployed for the use they’ve been intended for.
BYND has always insisted that its goals are devoid of any political considerations but the group has remained at the receiving end of scorching criticisms for propelling President Barrow’s political ambitions.
Sources said some of the motorbikes are being used to run private and political errands whilst others could not be accounted for.
However, Musa Ndow, BYND communications officer, told The Standard on Thursday that the motor bikes have been variously distributed and that their deployment has been contributing greatly to the attainment of BYND’s goals of, inter alia, slashing the unemployment rate among youths, boosting horticultural production to provide livelihood support to women across the country and improving access to potable water for communities, especially rural Gambia.
Ndow laughed off the widely held perception that BYND has not registered any significant progress since coming to fore and that it’s a group of President Barrow enablers.
“That’s not correct. I will be happy to bring to your attention the positive impacts we have made and continue to make on the lives of people in several communities, especially in rural Gambia. I am happy to inform you that we have succeeded in bringing clean drinking water to many settlements through our borehole project,” BYND spokesperson explained.
“We’ve made remarkable accomplishments in providing water for communities such as Foday Kunda, Fongoi Kunda, Sare Saidy, Jawo Kunda, Numu Kunda, Sare Sasita, Sutukoba, Bureng, Janjanbureh, Lamin Koto, Soma, Chamoi, Farafenni and Njoren. We also have horticultural projects in Bakoteh, New Yundum and Pirang,” he added.
He disclosed that BYND has also identified communities in a country-wide needs assessment exercise in order to roll out its projects in those areas, elucidating that most of the motor bikes were given to youths as a livelihood support.
