By Buba Gagigo
The National People’s Party Banjul Chairman Mbaye Gaye, while responding to his critics said that he spent the D2m given to him by President Adama Barrow on campaign during the presidential election.
“The D2m was for the campaign. We have nine wards in Banjul and each ward has a chairperson. We shared the D2m among the wards in Banjul. They went to the treasurer, signed and we gave them the money. We did other expenditures there in the buildup the Election Day, the vehicles we hired, the food we cooked for people all came from that D2m. We had two big carnivals. The D600, 000 they are talking about from the Ministers didn’t even reach us. It was handled by the Ministers themselves, and I don’t know anything about the D40, 000 they are talking about. I’m just hearing forty thousand,” Mbaye Gaye told Kerr Fatou in a phone interview.
On whether he used the police to stop Haddy Jallow’s group from holding a programme at the Arch, he said: “I am the regional chairman of NPP. Anything somebody is doing about NPP in Banjul should inform me. I was not informed; we were on our campaign for the President. If anyone holds a programme at the Arch and the number is small, what will the opposition say? That’s why I said once we were not informed, we are not aware, let’s stop the programme and then we sit-down and discuss. That day, I was not there. I was having a football match that I was commissioning. I was not in Banjul, I was in Bakau, how could I stop the programme?” the NPP Chairman continued.
On the request by the Association of Banjul Women and Youth for the president to sack him, Gaye said: “They (the Association of Banjul Women and Youth) have the right. I have nothing to say on that,” he concluded.
The Association of Banjul Women and Youth has demanded President Adama Barrow to sack the NPP Chairman and his team in Banjul.
The association argued that sacking the NPP Chairman and his team would avoid more loss for the party in the 2023 local government election.