By Mama A Touray
Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, the leader of United Democratic Party, has said his government would have averted the shootout between Senegalese soldiers under ECOWAS Mission with MFDC rebels on The Gambia border that left three soldiers’ dead and seven missing.
Speaking at a news conference held in Pipeline, Lawyer Darboe told reporters that “If UDP is in power the incident won’t arise because we will address the root problem of it, we would have taken before now to ensure that no timber come from southern Senegal through the Gambia or to any part of the Gambia and of cause that will be the reason the Senegalese security will not intervene on the Gambian territory in its matters.”
“And more importantly is that we will make sure that the mandate of the Senegalese troops or ECOMIG troops are clearly stated out and that whatever escaped in the Gambian territory will be for the Gambian security officers that doesn’t rule out the fact that they will be no cooperation, there will be cooperation within the Gambian security and this other security outfits but it will be Gambian security that will be completely in charge of whatever takes place in our territory,” he added.
However, when asked about whether the United Democratic Party believes in the eligibility of the Independent Electoral Commission? Darboe said ‘What we have now is the IEC as constituted and we just have to bear with that until better time comes.
“When I present the evidence of the electoral malpractices then people will start questioning themselves whether this is the Independent Electoral Commission we know. But for now this is the IEC we have and it is the institution that we will work with when the second revelation is out maybe some of them will consider resigning and will say I cannot continue working with this institution in this circumstances,” he said.