By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The Gambia’s first-ever elected female mayor has hinted at underhand tactics and ploys by members of the UDP to “dethrone” Lawyer Ousainou Darboe.
Mayor Rohey Malick Lowe asserted that some UDP members were involved in frantic behind-the-scenes machinations to “coup de tat” Darboe, who remains the flagbearer of the Gambia’s largest opposition party since 1996.
“They are hatching plans to supplant Ousainou Darboe. I have no issues with that at all but let them take me out of it. If they wish to take Ousainou Darboe’s position, that’s well and fine for them but let them not use me as a political football,” Mayor Lowe fumed.
In a chat with Open Mike, Open Friday show on Star FM, Mayor Lowe said enough was enough.
“They [some UDP supporters] have tormented and subjected me to violence. They have now taken it upon themselves to spearhead a smear campaign against me,” she charged.
“Whenever I pose with Barrow for a picture, they would verbally attack me and accuse me of decamping to the NPP. If I pose with Fatoumatta Barrow, it’s a problem for them [some UDP] supporters,” Mayor Lowe added.
She said the violence to which some members of her party have been subjecting her was extreme. She elaborated: “You found me in my father’s house and asked me to get out to the parlor. I went to the sitting room and you asked me to go out to the courtyard. I agreed to go to the courtyard for peace to reign but you nonetheless came to me at the courtyard and asked me off to the street. I went out to the street but you came there, too, and asked me off the street. I left the street and went to a neighbor’scompound yet you came there and asked the neighbor to throw me out. Who are you?”
Meanwhile, the Banjul Mayor has fallen short of clarifying the reports that she has joined or was on the verge of shifting allegiance to the NPP but her father-neighbor analogy appears to have summed everything up.