By Fatou Sillah
Bakary Y. Badjie, the National People’s Party’s candidate for mayor of Kanifing Municipality, at an endorsement ceremony of his candidacy by former mayor, Yankuba Colley, and some former Councilors of the municipality, said, that Talib Ahmed Bensouda, the incumbent mayor, cannot be compared to former Mayor, Yankuba Colley, in terms of development.
“When we talk about records, you can count a lot of records that we registered under the Lord Mayor, Yankuba Colley, and the council. The people of the municipality know this. They know that when you talk of comparison, they don’t even exist. Our people, unfortunately, have short memories, they only remember what happened in the last months and the last few years but probably do not remember the things that happened in the past,” he said
Bakary Badjie further stated that the former Mayor has built a lot of markets during his term.
“You talk of Markets, you can count them multiple, about 6 or so. Markets during his two terms as a councilor and I always talked about these issues in my meetings. Somebody mentioned the Abuko market here. That’s a market that was developed by the Lord Mayor at a time that I was serving as chairperson of the finance and audit committee.
“The same time that the Tallinding market was constructed and the same with the old Jeshwang market that the CEO said has a garage, and it was the same time that Charles Jaw High School was built and the Serekunda market was burned down at one time. It was during this period that the Serekunda market was rebuilt to the status that it is,” He said.
Mr. Badjie added that all these developments happened when the Council was collecting minimal revenue
“All of these developments were done at a time that the council was collecting minimal revenue, but we have seen an increase by 100% of revenue and yet still we have not seen those kinds of markets, Structures, and Schools been constructed under the period that the current Lord Mayor Talib Bensouda is serving,” He stated.
He made these Remarks during the endorsement of his candidacy by the Former Mayor and Councilors of the Kanifing Municipality.