By Omar Bah
Sidia Jatta, a longterm PDOIS National Assembly Member for Wuli West, an area which benefited from road and bridge projects, has told the people of his constituency to stop saying that President Adama Barrow constructed the bridges and roads as if it was his personal money that was used to build them.
The veteran politician is seeking reelection and faces a crowded field of contestants from NPP, GMC and UDP.
Addressing a rally in Wuli Gunjur, Jatta said it is most ridiculous and misleading for people to tell Wuli that “Sidia Jatta has been in parliament for years and has not done anything. My role as an MP is not to dig boreholes or construct roads for you because nobody gives me money to do that. Do you know that the Yerro Bawol–Basse Road is more than D100 million? Is that from Barrow’s pocket? No. It is from state funds. We recently approved D90 million for them to pay the loans and you are here telling me Barrow constructed roads. Which roads has he constructed? A road that was constructed from loans and because of which you could not even have medicine in your hospitals. Your living conditions are very hard today because of the amount of loan this country is taking and they are using your money to pay these loans and yet, you are saying it is Barrow who constructed the roads,” Mr Jatta lamented.
The veteran parliamentarian further told his people that even the Basse bridge was a grant and that even if Gambia elected a dog as president, the government would still receive those grants because “we begged for it. In fact, these grants in reality are not for free because yes, the Chinese gave us $75 million to build the Basse bridge and construct the Fatoto road but do you know what the Chinese are doing in our waters? Do you know the Chinese factories in Sanyang have destroyed all the women’s gardens there and even negatively impacted the health of residents? The people of Sanyang fought for the place to be closed but they ended up arresting those people and they are still taking them to court. So, tell me whether their so-called grants are free. You give somebody something to kill the person. Is that a gift?”
