By: Momodou Justice Darboe & Kemo Kanyi
President Adama Barrow has asserted that he will step down as President only when Lawyer Ousainou Darboe kicks the bucket and is laid to rest.
A fortnight or so ago, UDP leader Lawyer Ousainou Darboe revealed that the land that was set aside for the chief justice had been allocated to President Barrow and that he [Darboe] would confiscate it when he becomes President.
The Gambia leader hinted at a political rally in Brikama on Saturday that life would never give the veteran politician the chance to follow through with his threat of confiscating the land in question.
Mr. Barrow maintained that he knew better than Darboe that government land allocation must be done at a designated layout.
“He doesn’t know that. He is not the President because the land allocated to his wife was done through my instrumentality. It was not allocated in a layout. Ousainou was the Vice President at the time she [Darboe’s wife] applied. We were processing the documents but before we could complete the process, I sacked him from my government,” Barrow said at the inauguration of the NPP regional bureau in Brikama last Saturday.
President Barrow said when he sent Darboe home, the veteran politician despatched a messenger to him to plead with him not to discontinue the process of allocating land to his wife and daughter.
“I called Minister Musa Drammeh into my office and explained to him that this is the type of message that Darboe dispatched to me. However, I told him [Minister Musa Drammeh] that he would realize I’m different from him. He [Minister Drammeh] prepared the documents and allocated the land to his [Darboe’s] wife,” he added.
Mr. Barrow wondered aloud how the UDP leader could threaten to seize the land allocated to him despite all these favours.
“Allah is great. That is the individual, who threatened to confiscate my compound. Since he threatened that he would confiscate my land if he became President, let me tell him one thing and that is that I take an oath today that I will remain President till he joins the ancestors because as long as he doesn’t kick the bucket, I’ll remain in power,” stated Mr. Barrow.
“When he breathes his last and I confirm that he has indeed died and after attending his burial, then and there I will relinquish power,” he added.
Mr. Barrow said he would surrender the land in contention if found to have legally belonged to the chief justice.
“My father said when he became president, he would confiscate the land allocated to me by the government. Hear out such an utterance. He said the land belongs to the chief justice. Since he and the chief justice are lawyers, let him go and ask him whether he has the title deed of the land, and when the chief justice produces it, I will surrender my compound,” he stated.