19 APRC Supporters join the UDP

19 APRC Party Members Crossed Over To Opposition UDP
24 September, 2010 03:22:00
www.thegambiajournal.com
Nineteen people, led by one Mariama Badjie of Bakau Newtown last Sunday announced their defection from the ruling APRC party to the main opposition United Democratic Party, UDP. The seven men and twelve women, who claimed to be previously staunch members of the APRC, expressed frustration with the one-man rule that currently prevails in the country and the growing difficulties of making ends meet in the country in a well attended meeting in central Brikama, in the Western Region. One of the men told The Gambia Journal, in a special interview on the sidelines of the rally how one of his sons, a soldier in the Gambia Armed Forces, has been made to disappear since his arrest a day before the last Independence celebration in February of this year. “There is no door we have not knocked to find out his whereabouts, but all to no avail. In fact, in the process, I came to find out men in the security forces are more terrified than we civilians, it cannot go on like this if we want peace in this country and that is why I decided to switch allegiance,” the middle-aged man from Foni who does not want to be named said.
Another woman who is one of the nineteen said, “Since the days of the transition when Yahya was in uniformed, I have attended all major APRC political rallies, gone on campaign tours around the country leaving husband and family behind. Listen, I have almost always dressed in the green color of the party. Behind my back people used to call me ‘Misses Green.’ But all these I did not do for Yahya personally or for myself personally, but for my children, their children and the people of this country. Now, they want me to go and work Yahya’s farm every weekend just because they gave me a piece of government job, cleaning offices in Banjul. The salary hardly covers the fares. And on top of this I must work as an informant for the NIA, reporting colleagues, neighbors and other innocent people. Enough is enough.”
Most of the others spoke of the rising cost of living and the difficulties making ends meet. In spit of all this, one said, President Jammeh is taking the country’s money and dishing it out to footballers, musicians, praise-singers and “other useless people” as if the country was “floating in dalasi notes.”
Many of these had been said by some of the nineteen people who spoke at the rally but could hardly be made out amidst the din of drumming, handclapping and a noisy background in the massive Brikama rally.
Party leader, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe Secretary General of the UDP used the occasion to call for talks within the opposition ahead of the coming presidential, parliamentary and local government elections. He said it is only by coming together through dialogue that the opposition can make headway in the presidential election due next year.
The political rally was the first organized by the party since the last mass rally about a year ago in central Serrekunda which led to the jailing of its former Campaign Manager, Femi Peters. Last July the party also held its first congress in Jarra Soma, Lower River Region where Darboe’s continued leadership was endorsed.
The UDP leader said he is ready to meet with any opposition leader in this country for a dialogue with a view to mapping out the way forward in salvaging the country.
"I am ready to meet with any opposition leader anywhere, anytime to discuss about the way forward in salvaging our country," he told the gathering.
The Gambia, Darboe went on, has reached a level where the opposition needs to put aside all their differences and work together in the interest of the citizens.
Darboe pointed at the skyrocketing of prices in the country, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, the drug and other scandals among top-ranking government officials, the instability in government and growing personal tyranny as a challenge to every citizen of the country.
"Nobody will salvage our people other than our very own selves together with their support. The Gambia has reached a point where all hands must be put on deck to effect change," he said, adding that "it is better to be late than never".
Other speakers at the rally included Propaganda Secretary and President of the Youth Wing, Momodou Lamin Shyngle Nyassi and Rambo Jatta UDP National President Dembo Bojang, Aja Aunty Yama Secka, Amie Sabally representing the opposition NRP, and UDP Nyambai ward sponsored candidate Foday Gassama.