By Buba Gagigo
Yankuba Darboe, Chairman of Brikama Area Council, asserts that President Adama Barrow’s government aims to imprison him but declares his fearlessness in the face of these threats.
The chairman spoke out following a clash between Brikama market vendors and the Operation Clear the Roads initiative led by Bakary Manneh. Darboe condemned Manneh’s actions as illegal and vindictive, alleging that their primary aim is his incarceration. He highlighted the detrimental effects of their actions on local market vendors, emphasizing the disruption caused by their apparent agenda to see him behind bars.
“What Manneh and his people are doing in Brikama is not acceptable, it’s not lawful, it is wickedness. They have one objective, and that is to jail Yankuba Darboe. That’s all they want, that’s why our market vendors are suffering at our markets. They said they are clearing the roads, but they don’t stop at the roads. They went inside the market, but today they don’t even stop at the market. They came up to our office gate. They did not stop there. They went to the new place we built two weeks ago. And we’ve already announced two weeks ago that no vehicles should be allowed in for 28 days because the place is newly built. It is the law that says if the council wants to use it any, just like when Tobaski is approaching, we can use it as a market. That’s all we did,” Chairman Darboe said.
The Brikama Area Council chairman clarified that the council’s use of secondary roads for ‘Wanterr’ is within their jurisdiction.
“People have voted for me and I swore that I am not going to be afraid, and I will work for them and I will work without fear or favor, and I am standing by that oath. The people who planned to kill me or jail me if they don’t go back, I will not go back. We will stand up every day to make sure that our market is respected. The market is our market, and we allowed vendors to sell there. We are the ones who blocked the roads as a council because it’s a secondary road so that people can do ‘Wanterr’ there,” he said.
He stated that when the Operation Clear the Roads team arrived, they refused to engage in dialogue with them and instead began to disperse tear gas.
“When they came, if they were men they should have come to the council and told us they came to remove the roads, but they came with guns, a lot of soldiers, and they started spraying tear gas on women and market vendors. I am the one who is responsible for the region, and they are always coming and destroying the market, and I am hearing it, and they are not even reaching out to me still now. That’s why I told them today It has to end. We will go out if there is death. We are going to take it and if we are going to live we also take it, but people cannot vote me in, and I sit in the air condition and the people who voted for me are in a bad condition. I took an oath that I will serve that place without fear or favor. I told them let’s go out and confront these people. Who are these people to come to our market and the law says the market is under us. When they saw me, they were afraid to talk to me. They started to spray tear gas at myself, and they spread tear gas to all other people around me,” he said.
The chairman, who described the act of dispersing tear gas on them as cowardly, challenged Manneh and his team to publicly display the law that supports them in removing the women vendors from the market.
“They have guns at the same time spraying tear gas on us, that is cowardice. If they were men, they should have stood and talked to us. If they were backed by the law, they should have stood and talked to us, but they did not follow the law. They came with power, and they used that power to spray tear gas from the first moment to show that they have power. They spread at us until we entered the clinic. They continued spraying tear gas inside the clinic. That is unacceptable. What I will tell President Adama Barrow today is today, but tomorrow is coming,” he said.
Darboe informed President Barrow that he’s not afraid of him and that if he’s imprisoned, he will one day be released and become a President, just like Sonko and Diomaye in Senegal.
“The fight that you are bringing on Yankuba Darboe, You can kill me, but you can never erase my name in this country, you will know that Yanks Darboe stood for defiance, and he died for that and will meet hereafter. I’m not afraid of you, and I will never be afraid of you. Even if you bring ‘Sardicombat’ in Brikama I will never be afraid of you. Let me make that clear to him. Let him know that I am not afraid of him. You are sending Manneh and sending soldiers. If you are a man, come and meet me in Brikama.
“They arrested my Councillor without a reason. He confronted them for the same reason we did. Jawo Jallow is the Market Committee Chairman. This week they allocated the space to the vendors, so if he finds people removing them, he has the right to intervene and tell them it was the council that allocated the space for the vendors. They tore his shirt and arrested him. They think when they jail us, they are humiliating us. I was jailed at mile 2 and more than 77,000 people voted for me later. If he jailed me, I will come out one day and become president,” he said.
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