By: Dawda Baldeh
Ebrima Nyang, the Administrative Secretary (1) of the opposition Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC) has stated that his party is more confident in supporting the re-election of the incumbent mayor of the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) Talib Ahmed Bensouda following his recent revelations of internal management issues at the council with Kerr Fatou.
“GDC is more confident in supporting Bensouda’s re-election after hearing his revelations at Kerr Fatou. These are internal affairs that many people never knew but is good that Talib has revealed it. It’s an indication that Talib is not in the council to empower himself,” Nyang told The Fatu Network.
Nyang, whose party endorsed the UDP mayoral candidate for the KMC mayoral election, expressed optimism that Bensouda will bring more development to the people if given a second mandate.
“He came into office the mayor was allocated a fuel coupon of D12, 250.00 and he reduced it to D5000.00. This was too much to him because the council was struggling at the time,” Nyang added while commending Bensouda for the move.
In the recent interview with Kerr Fatou, Bensouda asserted that he rejected an offer of a utility car for his wife, a mobile phone that the procurement officers claimed was costing D90,000, and travel impress of $1000 among others to save the council’s money for development.
For Ebrima, the move by Bensouda is worth commending if people are truly interested in the development and ending corruption in public offices.
“He [Bensouda] could have taken all those offers but he turned them [down] for the interest of the council.
“We have a very content mayor, and he came to the council to work not to empower himself.
“He is very committed to fighting against corruption in the council. All concerned Gambians should now compare Mayor Bensouda and Bakary Y. Badjie to see who is best,” he added.
According to Nyang, Bakary Y. Badjie, the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) mayoral candidate, is not fit to run the affairs of the council saying, “We have all seen when he (Bakary Y. Badjie) travelled with his wife and paid her money without following due protocols.”
The GDC Admin Secretary 1 added that there is enough evidence for the people of the Kanifing Municipality to rally behind Bensouda.
“I am urging all GDC supporters to vote for Bensouda to save the KMC from the plot of NPP which is just to secure the council and empower themselves.
“We all know what is going on in this country. And we know the market price of everything but some of the officials don’t care about procurement because all they want is to empower themselves.
“We must join hands to save the country from the rampant corruption and Bensouda is taking the lead at the council level,” he emphasized.
“We need responsible leaders to help the country. Bensouda has a lot of offers that he could have taken if he was not interested in fighting against corruption and the Gambia needs leaders like him.
“The people of KMC should give Bensouda their votes if they want continuous development. They should know who is there for them by not allowing anyone to buy their votes,” he urged.
He noted that NPP deemed the election very important because they are interested in gaining the power to continue making people suffer with no medications in the hospitals, poor roads, lack of water, and continuous corruption.
“We should not watch the NPP continue to manipulate us as citizens. We should show NPP that we are not materials that customers will be bargaining to purchase.
“In the 2021 presidential election we have seen the number of people whose voter [cards] were bought but today they are all suffering and begging around for credit and feast money,” he reiterated.
