By Omar Bah
Barely a week after ditching the pro-Barrow Gambia For 5 Years and joining the UDP, Abdou Willan whose decampment to the yellow army was hailed by Ousainu Darboe as symbolic of the broad reach of his party, has rejoined President Barrow’s NPP.
When news broke earlier yesterday, The Standard reached out to the former Gambia For 5 Years assistant secretary.
“Yes, the statement is factual. I have left UDP. I am with the NPP. I went to the UDP only for research and I have returned with a lot of information. I am now full time with the NPP. That is the bigger picture,” he explained.
Explaining his political flip-flops, Mr Willan stated: “I was convicted in 2012 and sent to Mile 2 Prison. My wife was struggling to provide food for the family. At some point she couldn’t even afford the rent and they were evicted from the house. It was during those struggles that she met Adama Barrow on the street and explained her predicament to him. Without hesitation he gave her a house for free. That’s where she stayed until when Barrow pardoned me in 2017. That’s why I will remain loyal to Adama Barrow.”
On his sabbatical at the UDP, Mr Willan said it came to an end after he started receiving mixed messages from factions within the party, his inability to get a voter’s card and party manifesto and Ousainu Darboe’s failure to give him “courage” when he told him about his predicament if removed as a senior staff of the Gambia Transport Union.
In a riposte to Mr Willan, UDP spokesman Almami Taal stated: “The party does not have any feelings about it. Because this kind of tactic politically just shows how immature and how inexperienced some of these people are. What intelligence can you gather from a meeting with the party leader? That’s not a forum where the strategy of the party is discussed. And quite frankly I think these individuals who are flip-flopping around, they should be laughing stocks in the country. What are they bringing to the table apart from just getting themselves laughed at? You wake up in the morning and you go and say that you want to join a party and all of a sudden you flip back to whatever you are doing and saying that is a strategy. It’s so childish.”
