By Buba Gagigo
The Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC) has denied Demba Sabally’s claim that he left the party because of its relationship with the United Democratic Party (UDP) during the Niamina bye-election.
The Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC) has stated that Demba Sabally left the party because of a Facebook post he made that was critical of the “3-Years Jotna” group, which was demanding that President Adama Barrow honor his three-year agreement with his coalition partners.
“Every Gambian knows the stand of Demba Sabally during the 3-years Jotna. He was encouraging the security to pump more gas on the protesters. During the protest, he went and wrote on his Facebook page, “We need more gas”. This was during a time when three people had already died in the protest, and we updated our party leader about it. Kandeh’s stand is always to see that no Gambian is in pain. Doctor went and happily informed Kandeh about the situation of the 3-years Jotna and how they were maltreated.
“Kandeh told him that he’s a leader and if he becomes the president, whether anyone supports him or not, he will be a president of all. Kandeh told him he will sympathize with them even if they happened to differ in opinion. Kandeh to him to delete his Facebook post about the 3-years Jotna because of the position he was holding in GDC. Kandeh made it very clear that he was not in support of his post and all the GDC supporters were not in support of it. Kandeh to him that if he did not delete the post, he would be expelled from the party. This was the time he started misbehaving in GDC,” GDC said through their Party’s Administrative Secretary Ebrima Nyang.
He said After the 3-years Jotna incident, the Gambia Democratic Congress leadership was able to understand that Demba Sabally’s intention was to divide the party;
“He said he wanted to form a political party before he joined GDC. But when he joined GDC we had already formed all our structures, but he came with his own agenda. And his agenda was to be close to the party leadership, he will belittle everyone besides the leadership and to make sure everyone is nothing beside the leadership,” he explained.
The Gambia Democratic Congress leadership came to the realization that Demba Sabally’s intention was to divide the party after the 3-year Jotna incident.
“When we formed GDC, there was no position like the Chairmanship, he came and shared the idea with the members of the Central Executive including the leadership, and he was supported. The party constitution was amended, and the position was included. He can out and show interest in occupying the position. He only wanted the position to be closer to Kandeh.
“But we later understand that his intentions were to divide the party, but the leadership showed him the GDC is one and no one can divide the party. Kandeh told him that anyone who had the intention of dividing the party will be the person to leave. At this point, he knew that the GDC leadership had understood his intentions toward the party. He resigned before our Farafenni Congress. Because he knew he wouldn’t have maintained his position in the Congress,” he said.
Demba Sabally was the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC)’s National Chairman before he joined the president’s National People’s Party (NPP). He is now the National People’s Party’s first Deputy National President and Minister of Agriculture.