Concerns have since last week been mounting in a lot of quarters about the perceived carefree attitude of NPP officials Seedy Njie and Demba Sabally towards cases of suspected fraudulent attempts by non-Gambians to acquire voter’s card.
House deputy speaker and senior NPP figure Seedy Njie was last week at the Latriya police station, where he reportedly secured the release of two Guineans that allegedly conspired to acquire a voter’s card through a fake birth certificate.
The UDP’s Old Yundum voter registration monitoring team last Thursday handed over a Guinean woman to the Latriya police station after she was “found in possession of a counterfeited biometric birth certificate” at the Youna voter registration centre.
However, according to the monitoring team leader Mr. Essa Sonko, the lady was later freed alongside her husband following the intervention of the deputy House speaker.
“My team and I went to Youna [registration centre] this morning. At Youna, we encountered three people with birth certificates and we later realised that they [birth certificates] are fake. We lodged a complaint to the IEC about these three people, but they later ran away,” said Sonko in an audio release.
He continued: “When we came across the fourth case of an individual with a falsified birth certificate, we informed the IEC that we were not going to take this one lightly. We engaged the lady in a conversation during which she panicked and confessed that her husband gave it [fake birth certificate] to her.
We drove with the lady to the husband, who confirmed giving her the false birth certificate. The husband said it [birth certificate] was given to him by one Ebrima.”
The UDP’s Old Yundum constituency voter registration monitoring team later lodged a complaint with the Latriya police and both wife and husband were arrested.
The deputy speaker subsequently arrived at the station and reportedly changed the course of the police investigation.
“Our statements were recorded and we were invited to the CID office, but Seedy Njie came there and asked the police to release them [Guineans], telling them that nothing would come out of the issue,” Sonko claimed.
Sonko could not understand why the police refused to heed his request for the case’s reference number.
“The police said they would not give me the reference number unless I apply for it. I told them that’s not the norm as I was the complainant. That was when BAC Chairman Yankuba Darboe and others arrived. They said they are going to call for a reinforcement from the paramilitary. Only a handful of us are currently here,” he added.
The ongoing supplementary voter registration exercise has been put into question since at the outset.
Another key ruling party figure Demba Sabally has visited registration centres in Tanji to ostensibly interact with IEC officials, agents and other relevant stakeholders. His message that everyone should acquire voter’s card without let or hindrance has drawn criticism from many quarters as many said it could embolden foreigners to meddle in December’s election.
