The United Democratic Party has said that it will take action against individuals who disrupted its congress for the West Coast Region.

UDP at the weekend put off its WCR congress following reports of division. The party’s spokesperson confirming the postponement immediately after its announcement said some issues had been brought to the attention of the party that needed taking care.

The party in a statement on Wednesday said its leader Ousainou Darboe condemns “in the strongest possible terms the behavior of a few individuals claiming to be members of the UDP that disrupted the West Coast Region Regional congress that was scheduled to take place on last Sunday 18th November 2018 in Brikama, which was on the advice of the Gambia Police Force postponed to 24th November 2018.”

“The individuals involved in the incident are known to the Party authorities and their odious conduct and reprehensible actions have been recorded and will be given to the appropriate authorities to deal with them to the fullest extent of the law,” the party said.

“These individuals are impostors and miscreants and do not represent the values and ideals of the UDP. To be clear no genuine member of the UDP will be involved in acts of provocation and disruptive activities at properly sanctioned programmes of the UDP.”

Meanwhile the United Democratic Party says its the regional congress for West Coast Region is now slated for Saturday 24th November 2018 at the Brikama Youth Centre and the congress proceedings will start at 11.am.

“Furthermore, all members, militants and supporters of the UDP and the general public are hereby notified that ONLY registered delegates are welcome to the regional congress. The list of delegates has already been submitted to the officials of the Party. And that only the legitimate constituency Chairmen of the twelve Constituencies of West Coast Region are welcome to lead, identify and seat their delegates,” the party said.

“Finally, the Secretary General and the Party Leadership hereby make it abundantly clear that any individual or group that attempts to disrupt, disturb or interfere with internal party democracy matters will be dealt with swiftly to the full extent of the Party’s disciplinary rigours based on the rules and regulations of the UDP.”

UDP also said its executive committee will hold a meeting next week to consider the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident and take all necessary disciplinary actions against the miscreants and impostors trying to sow discord in the Party and bring the name of UDP into disrepute.

“The UDP stands united and resolute behind the properly constituted leadership recently elected throughout the country at ward, constituency and regional levels,” it added.

The Gambia Democratic Congress has given reasons why hundreds of people recently moved to the party from at least three other parties.

Opposition GDC announced on Monday that 278 people left the United Democratic Party to join the party.

“This is exactly a fact. In fact the number that was announced was a little bit less than the actual figure. [They’re] from the APRC, NRP and the UDP,” the spokesperson of the party Momodou M5 Jallow told The Fatu Network on Wednesday.

According to Mr Jallow, the GDC believes in pragmatism saying “we’ve been practicalising things before we verbally say them and so this is what is convincing people to come to the GDC.”

He said: “What we are doing is to convince Gambians to see that the Gambia Democratic Congress is the right political party. What they (defectors) were saying [is that] a lot of them have been in many of these other parties for a good period of time but to them they have not seen anything that they could present or at least that have been presented to them even as chairpersons or heads of women groups [sic].

“GDC we are doing it before we say it [sic]. In fact as I’m talking to you, the two boreholes we promised for Mamouda and…. Right now the materials have been delivered for the work to start. In the next two weeks or so, we are assuring them they will be drinking water from the boreholes dug by the Gambia Democratic Congress.”

By Lamin Njie

Lawyer for the Janneh Commission Amie Bensouda has said that former President Yahya Jammeh was expected to have close associates.

“Of course President Jammeh was expected to have close associates. He’s human. And all human beings have friends and associates,” Mrs Bensouda told commission chairman Surahata Janneh on Wednesday as she addressed the probe with regard to a court of appeal ruling.

Muhammed Bazzi who was named by the commission as a close associate of former President Yahya Jammeh had instituted a lawsuit against the probe and the attorney general with regard to the interim orders that were made against him in October 2017. However, the court of appeal in its ruling held that the commission “cannot be a party to an action in respect of decisions made by it”.

Mrs Bensouda said: “An interim order that a person is a close associate of President Jammeh is not a penalization or a punishment of any sort. It is in fact an opportunity to give the person who’s named a close associate to explain his or her relationship with President Jammeh and to explain if they can the facts that have been brought to their attention which led the commission to make the probable determination that the person is a close associate of President Jammeh.

“It’s my submission Mr Chairman that all five persons who have been named close associates of – who have said to this commission, ‘we are not close associates’ – have fully availed themselves of the opportunity to explain the circumstances of the issues that have been brought to their attention. It is now for the commission to make its findings and determination based on the evidence before it. The interim orders were interim and have always remained interim. They were not a decision or final decision of this commission.”

The spokesperson of the United Democratic Party has said that members of the party are members of all kinds of organizations and associations.

Almami Fanding Taal stated this in an interview with The Fatu Network on Monday.

It comes amid claims of bigotry directed at some members of the party who are also members of President Adama Barrow’s youth movement.

President Barrow Youths for National Development was set up last year to further the president’s agenda but the road has been bumpy. Many mainstream UDP members say the movement is a threat to their party and are calling for its annihilation.

Mr Taal said: “Anybody who claims to be a member of the UDP is not stronger or bigger than any other member of the UDP. The only place where we can establish authority is at the executive committee level, at the regional level, at the constituency level.”

The UDP spokesperson said the only people whose “statements and comments” carry weight that adherents should rely on are the party’s office bearers.

“If you’re an office bearer one way or the other in any of these structures of the party, your comments and your statements are the things that people should be relying on. But if two people say that, ‘I’m a UDP member and you’re not a UDP member’, well this up to them,” he added.

By Lamin Njie

The spokesperson of the United Democratic Party has said that there is a power struggle in every democratic dispensation.

“There is always a power struggle within a democratic dispensation. People want to have positions, whether it’s at the regional level or at the executive level but at every election that is what you have to prove, whether the people support you or not,” Almami Fanding Taal labelling UDP a democratic dispensation told The Fatu Network in an interview on Monday.

The United Democratic Party is reportedly being ravaged by political power struggles. The party Saturday cancelled its regional congress for the West Coast Region amid serious tension.

Mr Taal said: “West Coast you will remember has 12 constituencies and two of the constituencies have some issues such as the constituency congress. The MP for Sanimentaring is claiming that the delegates from one of the wards were not properly chosen.

“But according to the rules of UDP, we have to have all these congresses in the witness of either an executive committee member or in the presence of the regional chairman. In the case Sanimentaring, it’s Yusupha Cham who is the regional chairman of West Coast Region. The MP and Mr Cham have a disgreeement and UDP has resolved that matter, recognizing the congress that happened in Sanimentaring constituency.”

According to Taal, there were “some issues and those issues were resolved by the party but the MP for Sanimentaring has not accepted the decision of the party.”

“He’s not satisfied with the decision of the party. In a democracy where some people have some dissatisfaction, they have to seek redress. If you’re not happy with the redress, you can choose to do other things that are positive,” he added.

The Gambia Moral Congress has dissociated itself from a statement on social media that made an announcement of the return to government of their leader Mai Ahmad Fatty.

The party in a statement signed Monday by its public relations officer Momodou Lamin Fatty said the statement didn’t come from the party’s official Facebook page.

The statement read: “On Sunday November 18, 20018, reports emerged on social media that the secretary general of Gambia Moral Congress and our party leader Mai Ahmad Fatty has been appointed as the Minister of Defence of The Gambia. The reports unconfirmed as they were spread so quickly as soon as they emerged. The reports were then trailed rather spectacularly by wholesale national reaction.   

“The Gambia Moral Congress would like to inform the public that contrary to the reports, the party is not in the know of any offer of job extended to our dear leader, Honourable Mai Ahmad Fatty. Our dear leader, Honouable Mai Ahmad Fatty, has also informed the party that he has not received any offer of a job with the government.

“Furthermore, the Gambia Moral Congress has come across news media reports of Honourable Mai Ahmad Fatty’s appointment. These news media organizations grounded their reports on a certain Facebook page. GMC informs the public that the Facebook page these news media organizations relied on for their news reports IS NOT the official Facebook page of the party.

“While all this is, the Gambia Moral Congress would like to acknowledge the tremendous show of support that has been directed at our party leader. The party would like to thank everyone who showed love and support to a man whose only interest in life is to continue to deploy his vast capacities for a better Gambia. God bless The Gambia. God bless GMC.”

By Lamin Njie

Mamma Kandeh has said President Adama Barrow was nowhere to be found when the going was at its toughest for the United Democratic Party.

The GDC leader stated this at his party’s rally held at Mamouda, Kombo South on Saturday.

President Adama Barrow a few months ago delivered a furious rant over Dr Ismaila Ceesay’s review of him. The President’s total meltdown sent shockwaves across the country.

Mr Kandeh told his supporters: “I’ve seen him beating his chest saying he was meant to be president. That no one helped him. That he helped himself. Asking others where they were.

“Go and review all of UDP’s meetings from 1996 to 2016, the number of videos you will watch and see Adama Barrow sitting there.

“So where was he when UDP members were being beaten, jailed and tortured. Before he goes about asking people where they were, where was he?”

Mr Kandeh went on to add that “I’ve heard him (President Barrow) say that he used his wealth to campaign in 2016.”

He said: “Barrow knows why he didn’t stand in Jimara in 2012. If he had money, he knows. If he didn’t have money, he knows. So Adama Barrow should know that it’s Gambians who put him in office. His foremost priority should be what to do for Gambians and what to do for The Gambia and how to protect Gambians and their interest.”

By Lamin Njie

The United Democratic Party has postponed its regional congress for West Coast Region amid reports of infighting.

Some internal party issues have been brought to the attention of the central executive that have to be dealt with, the spokesperson of the party, Almami Taal, confirming the development told The Fatu Network on Sunday.

“The congress has been postponed to Saturday. Certain things got to the attention of the executive and there will be an emergency meeting on Tuesday,” Mr Taal added.

‘All is Well With UDP’

Mr Taal also dismissed claims that the country’s largest party and a key stakeholder in President Adama Barrow’s coalition government was being teared apart by infighting.

“Everything is okay with the UDP. Just that we have some issues that need to be dealt with. Beyond that I won’t be able to tell you anything,” he said.

By Lamin Njie

GDC leader Mamma Kandeh has said that President Adama Barrow is engaged in desperate attempts to hold on to power.

“Barrow wants to strengthen himself forgetting that he said he was going to be in power for only three years; forgetting that he said that he will step aside. That’s what he signed. Now he’s in power and doesn’t want to leave. Someone who calls himself an honourable man… He says something until the whole world hears it and now he wants to change that,” Mr Kandeh told a crowd of supporters at a rally held on Saturday.

Opposition Gambia Democratic Congress on Saturday held a massive rally in Mamouda, Kombo South – as the party presses on with its political activities countrywide.

Mr Kandeh told supporters President Barrow formed a movement “going to people for him to stay in office.”

“This government has no interest in development. They have no interest in Gambians. They have no interest in the progress of this country. Each among them is trying to see how he or she could protect his or her position,” he said.

Kandeh also told supporters “I saw them bribing some old men in URR to come and meet Barrow.”

“Those people didn’t come on their own volition,” he said.

“And I heard some people want to embark on a solidarity march in Basse for Barrow to remain in power. If they do that, we will also do a march for Barrow to leave power. All these show that these people are trying daily to see how they could remain where they are.”

Plight of Gambians

Mr Kandeh also faulted the Barrow administration for being insensitive to the plight of Gambians.

The GDC leader said: “What we have in The Gambia is felt by everyone. I told you there will come a time when you will meet a Gambian with his hands on his head saying, ‘I didn’t expect this.’ That wasn’t long enough. And it’s come to pass.

“What has The Gambia government done in this country from 2016 to date? There’s something that they’ve done but is that what Gambians need? On the whole a foundation is better than a government… As things stand, all the projects that should be implemented by the government have been diverted to Barrrow Youth Movement.”

Kandeh said further that “The Gambia government cannot fit into a movement.”

“A movement cannot move the Gambia forward and the people of that movement are entering houses, bushes, going everywhere lying to people,” he added.