Bakary ‘Bakso’ Jaiteh the general cordinator, APRC national mobiliser, has accused Pa Njie ‘Girigara’ of feigning to be an ally of President Barrow.
Njie a prominent supporter of the president released an audio last week in which he advised him to give back to the state the land on which he is building a palatial mansion by the Fajara coastline.
Unhappy with what he regarded as a public rebuke of the president, Mr Jaiteh rebutted by accusing Njie of jealousy and harbouring hatred for the head of state.
“Even I, Bakary Jaiteh, knows how lands are transferred and processed, legal and illegal. President Barrow has the right to look at any land anywhere in this country and build his retirement home. We all know that government can give out land, re-enter it and re-allocate it with a change of use notice. There is no law in our statute books that one can call upon to take away the land from President Barrow.
“President Barrow has the means and the support or connections to build the mansion he is building. Do your audit, check the books and see whether he is purloining from the state to build his home. Not one butut from the government has been expended on building this mansion. The brouhaha about this mansion is symptomatic of the jealousy that is eating at the fabric of our Gambian society as personified by Pa Njie ‘Girigara’.
“Considering how advanced you are in age, it is disappointing that you beat about the bush and skirt around the truth just to peddle falsehood. President Barrow has the legal right to own and build in this place. If anyone thinks that land will be yours when you are president one day, then you are living in cloud cuckoo land. Even in America, the state provides former heads of state with retirement homes. Former president Jawara has a home nearby that is still with his family. Did he buy that land? We should stop fooling one another. People aspire for advancement. I knew Pa Njie from Tobacco Road in Banjul and I can tell you he is not what he was then. He has been upward mobile, more so a president of the country. Whatever court one goes to, no one can take this home from President Barrow. He was not gifted the land by the lands minister. He followed the legitimate route to acquire the property.”
Jaiteh said Mr Njie should issue a public apology to the president.
He averred that Barrow wants to rule the country, retire in peace and continue to live in peace in the country and that Gambians should applaud the president for that aspiration.