The Chairman of the Brikama Area Council (BAC), Yankuba Darboe, has argued that his equivalent in the Kanifing Municipality Talib Bensouda is “the UDP’s main problem”.
Mr. Darboe acknowledged that there indeed exist camps in the UDP, but stated that the most problematic camp is Talib’s.
“Talib’s camp is a real problem whether one says it out or not. Talib and his people will be marauding the West Coast without even my knowledge as the head of the region, having meetings in Foni, distributing sugar to people and telling them Talib is the benefactor and that Yankuba has no money and can’t donate you sugar. I saw all and heard all in this West Coast. All sorts of things happened here. And if you believe that you share the same party with someone, that should not have happened,” the BAC chair said in an interview with Membekering.
According to Chairman Darboe, he spoke to Talib about his activities and those of his people.
“I sat down with Talib and put across to him that this is indeed a problem and you are the main problem of the party. I told him that NPP, APRC, APRC-No-TO-Alliance are not campaigning against me, but it’s your people conducting house-to-house campaigns, telling people Yankuba is not this or that, it’s happening because of you. So, this is a problem,” he explained.
“And this is the problem that is spilling over in the social media also. I went all the way to KMC just to play football with Talib. He is like a brother but you cannot have a brother stabbing you at your back and he is still a brother. No, that’s not how brotherhood goes. So, this is the crux of the problem,” he further explained.
Darboe told Membekering that he escalated the matter afterwards, but nothing was done about it.
“And then, I explained it to them and there was no solution to the problem and they did not address it,” stated the BAC chair. “Rohey Lowe has once told me that she suffered immensely from Talib and his people, who were calling her all kinds of names and hauling insults against her. But I told her that Talib is not like that and she told me to wait and I shall see. And now, I am seeing it because all the fight has now been concentrated on me,calling us temperamental, insulting me.”
Darboe suggested that the declaration of war against him is a political miscalculation.
“The thing is you have to understand that Yankuba Darboe may be in power for just two years but at least, he is heading a very big region. Then, there are people who voted for him. So if you challenge him, heaping insults on him and castigating him in that ferocious manner, people will respond,” he stated, adding,”I do not even know some of the responders, I only knew some of those on TikTok, fighting left right and centre. They said what I said was blown out of context but I told them that what I cannot understand is that I am fighting with those I share the same party with. They are the ones doing this. Remember Pa, I am fighting with the governor and his people in the West Coast, Barrow and his people at the State House are fighting me left,right and centre. I have all these battles going on on my desk and my own party is also fighting me. How can you fight with everybody?”
To the BAC chair, it makes more political sense for Talib to join forces with him and Banjul mayor Rohey Malick Lowe because Barrow “is fighting” all of them.
“Barrow is fighting everybody; Talib, Rohey but instead of us coming together to fight them, we are also fighting each other. But it’s only one camp that is fighting everybody because I am not giving out chicken to anybody in KM, T-shirt, bag of sugar. I do not give out things to anybody in the KM and it’s the same in Banjul. The only person I have in Banjul is Rohey Lowe, the only person I have in LRR is Landing B. Sanneh. These are the people I deal with,” he pointed out.
