Following Juwara’s expulsion UDP supporters quit

A group of UDP supporters and sympathisers have declared that they have
quitted the main opposition party as a result of the expulsion of Lamin Waa
Juwara. Speaking to The Independent, Mansour Saidy, UDP’s Kombo South
Propaganda Secretary, said that he joined the UDP with the hope that the
party would be able to march The Gambia to freedom and democracy. He added
that since he joined the party from the scratch, he has been participating
in all its activities and programmes. Mr. Saidy queried that the leadership
of the UDP had disappointed its supporters.

According to him, Juwara’s expulsion was unjustifiable and wrong. He added
that “Juwara alleged that there was misappropriation of the party’s funds
by the leadership and therefore called for the setting up of independent
commission of inquiry to investigate the allegation, but instead of doing
that, few people met and expelled Juwara”.

Mr. Saidy argued that the UDP is not a party which right-thinking people
should support. He declared that “from today, I’ve quitted the UDP and I
will join any party that Juwara will form”. Faye Sanneh, UDP’s constituency
chairman, Lower Fuladu West, said when he attended the meeting during which
Juwara was expelled, he rejected the expulsion because the majority of the
constituency chairmen were not present. He pointed out that there was no
justification for expelling Juwara “because he proposed that a commission
of inquiry be set up. This should have been set and the expulsion to be
followed if necessary”. Kebba Daffeh of Kembujeh told The Independent
that “I am out of the UDP with immediate effect.

Darboe’s leadership is not ideal at all. He is not ready to die for his
supporters and I don’t think we should also die for him.” Malang Fatty, a
key UDP supporter in Brikama-ba, said Darboe has disappointed the entire
UDP membership. He added that “we kept on blasting Jammeh’s administration
for its lack of accountability, honesty and transparency since the military
coup. But today, accusing fingers were pointed at Darboe himself for the
same anomaly and he refused to be probed”. He remarked that this is enough
proof that there is no truth in the UDP.

Manfanding Sumareh of Fuladu Wellingara, said he joined the UDP because he
believed it was the party of truth and honesty. He added that “now that
Juwara was expelled for just telling the truth, I’m convinced that the UDP
is not worth my support and I should not be counted as UDP supporter any
more”. Basiru Manka, who was reportedly subjected to a lot of harassment
and indecencies by the authorities while in the UDP, stated that what
Darboe did was suicidal. He claimed that Darboe has destroyed what his
supporters built in five years.

Mr. Manka opined that “every Gambian has now realised that Darboe’s
leadership will not make any positive impact for the UDP and therefore
called on the people not to support him. Kebba Camara, an out spoken UDP
politician in the Brikama car park, said Juwara’s expulsion was a decision
of few people and not the majority of UDP membership. He added that Juwara
is expelled “but those who expelled him should know that the majority of
UDP supporters will follow him wherever he goes”. He pointed out
that “Darboe and his so-called friends owned the name of the UDP but they
don’t own the supporters. “We own ourselves and we will do whatever we
want”.





--
There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see,
yet small enough to solve (Mike Leavitt)

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