By Lamin Cham
Three days after pictures and videos emerged of him with President Barrow and NPP stalwarts at a project launching, followed by claims that he has left the UDP for the NPP, Abdoulie Suku Singhateh is yet to clear the air, leaving supporters of both parties in a tug-of-war.
On Tuesday, he told a persistent NPP TV interviewer that he went to attend the launching of the multilateral funded agriculture project following an invitation as he was involved with the project design as head of the Ecowas parliamentary committee on agriculture. He told a similar story to The Standard.
However, when asked to clarify his position Tuesday night, Singhateh said he would do so at his own time.
However, he could not be reached on the phone throughout yesterday. When The Standard visited his Jeshwang home, a security guard said Mr Singhateh was not in residence.
A high-ranking UDP source however told The Standard that Mr Singhateh has not decamped to NPP and that his presence at the launching was to honour an official invitation.
However, supporters of the NPP are emphatic that Mr Singhateh has joined President Barrow’s party.
Writing on his Facebook page Ahmad Gitteh, a prominent NPP supporter said: “As far as we are concerned, Suku Singhateh is NPP. If UDP denies that then that’s UDP’s bread and butter. As an active participant in politics, one should know that joining one major party from another does not just happen overnight or instantly. There are always discussions and talks behind the scene.
“Before anyone comes out to say Suku is NPP we have had many meetings with him. In fact, the NPP camp has been making noise on social media since yesterday that we caught a big fish. Suku sat with our senior officials and has officially given his word to NPP that he is with us and as far as we are concerned, that is enough from someone as prominent as him in politics.”
However, the NPP administrative secretary, Mr Mambanyick Njie, told The Standard that he has neither met with Mr Singhateh nor spoken to him and no NPP senior official has informed him about Mr Singhateh joining the party.
