Kanifing Municipal Council Regional Chairman, Falang Sonko, has declared that Talib Ahmed Bensouda’s rise to mayor was made possible by his personal influence, a revelation that is bound to fuel debate within the party’s ranks.
“The truth is that for the past two weeks, God knows I was like a dead person. I was dead without being buried,” Sonko said. “Talib Ahmed Bensouda’s mother entrusted me with Talib. His being a mayor was due to my influence. Among all the people who have applied for the position of mayor, it was Talib’s application that came last.”
Sonko said he was first introduced to Talib by his younger brother, Karafa Sonko, before being formally presented to him by Talib’s mother, lawyer Amie Bensouda. “Amie herself came before me and explained to me how we are related and she told me ‘Here is your nephew,’” he recalled. He added that Talib’s father also entrusted him with the responsibility of looking after his son. “I am seeing Talib as my own son. People have said many things about me and lawyer Ousainou Darboe.”
The UDP chairman dismissed allegations that he had received money or favours from the mayor. “No one has ever come out to defend me to say what the people were saying about me is untrue. The commission is currently ongoing, who has ever heard the commission calling on me to go and testify? If it were true that Talib was giving me millions, by now I would have been called to testify at the commission.”
Sonko insisted that his role was based on guidance and mentorship, not financial gain.
“I always advise Talib not to rush and that he should always listen to me so that he can get to the place he yearns for,” he said, adding that he had even urged Amie Bensouda years ago to prepare her son for the presidency. “It was over five years when I went to his mother and asked her to help her son. I told Amie Bensouda that wanting to be president is not child’s play because everyone was talking about Talib, so it was high time that you prepared him.”
Sonko also revealed private conversations with UDP leader Ousainou Darboe about retirement. “He called me three times and said, ‘Should I tell the youths I was going to retire without informing you?’ This party was formed by the elders of this country, and do you think I was ideal to retire without informing those elders who entrusted the party with me?”
He dismissed claims that Darboe betrayed his own son (Talib Ahmed Bensouda) to become UDP flagbearer. “What people are saying about Lawyer Darboe betraying his son agreeing to make him the UDP flagbearer is untrue and it’s the greatest kind of hypocrisy one could have ever thought of.”
Sonko also questioned the strategy of those pushing for leadership transition within the party. “If they were eying the flagbearer position and thought it was only them who could defeat President Adama Barrow, why can’t they talk among themselves and form a delegation to meet the elders of the party and say it was this and that we believe and thought you can talk to the party leader to retire so make Talib the flagbearer. They failed to do this and prefer to send some people to the family of Lawyer Ousainou Darboe to ask him to retire. Was that the way? Is Ousainou Darboe the owner of the UDP? Can Ousainou surrender the UDP to any one of us?”
He concluded by stressing that politics remains unpredictable and that party loyalty is what matters most. “No one was expecting that Diomaye Faye would be president. Loyal party members always work towards the betterment of their party, and this is what we have done for the UDP. We were all locked down, including the senior executive, but later on, a member of the party became the president.”
