Hamat Bah blasts UDP leader for criticising Barrow

Honorable Hamat Bah, Minister of Tourism and Culture, has lambasted the leader of opposition United Democratic Party, Honorable Ousainou Darboe, for criticising President Adama Barrow, saying Darboe is preaching morality to President Adama Barrow forgetting about what he himself have said or done in the past.

Speaking at the ongoing president’s meet the people’s tour meeting in Farafenni, Mr Bah said: “There is one person I knew to be named Ousainou but I heard he has now changed his name to Abubakar. I wasn’t sure until I saw on the papers that he is now named Abubakar Darboe. Changing your name is quite strange.

“He said Adama Barrow doesn’t have authority to ally with APRC. Doesn’t he know what we know about him and his acts? In 2017 when 25 APRC MPs made a pronouncement defecting from APRC [to] supporting UDP of then, Ousainou now Abubakar Darboe and Ousainou celebrated that. The whole world saw it. They jubilated about it. Where is the moral authority, he is preaching Adama Barrow? Where was he then?

“When General MA Bah cross-carpeted from APRC to UDP, he was received in a massive reception. The whole world saw it. Where was the moral authority, he is preaching Adama Barrow? Where was he then? Look, we knew what they were doing to make sure that our negotiation with the APRC will fail.

“No matter how much you want to be president, you should know people have not forgotten what you said and did yesterday. I heard he was aiming a sly dig at me. He said those talking about tribalism are the tribalists themselves. I will not mention a tribe but I want to remind him: they once asked him who will replace him [as UDP leader] … He had a deputy at the time but he never mentioned his name. He said Kemeseng Jammeh was around and failed to mention his deputy. When we were campaigning in the parliamentary election here in Badibu, he was saying ‘let’s take our relative’s side’. Adama was not part of that; I was not part of that.”