Darboe Rejects Essa Faal’s Claims, Says Their Political Values Are Not Aligned

By Makutu Manneh

ANM Ousainu Darboe, the secretary general and leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP), has dismissed claims made by Essa Mbye Faal, leader of APP-Sobeyaa, about their political differences, accusing him of political inconsistency and rejecting suggestions that the UDP had previously engaged in negotiations with former President Yahya Jammeh’s Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC).

Speaking on West Coast Radio, where he was offered an opportunity to respond to remarks Faal had made on the same programme, Darboe acknowledged that the two politicians held fundamentally different political values.

Faal had previously said he considered aligning with the UDP but ultimately decided against it because their values were incompatible.

Darboe agreed with that assessment but turned the criticism on Faal, describing himself as a politician guided by consistent principles rather than shifting political allegiances.

He said he was not the kind of politician Faal had become, declaring that he was not a “flip-flop politician.”

Darboe also challenged Faal’s suggestion that the UDP had previously held discussions with the APRC, describing the claim as false.

“But what he said in that interview, you know, lawyers like to use precedence to justify their positions, and their arguments, is that UDP and APRC have sat down to discuss, which is false,” Darboe said.

He insisted that the UDP had never entered into negotiations with the APRC. The closest the two sides came to any engagement, he said, was when Abdoulie Kujabi informed him that Jammeh, while serving as president, had expressed an interest in working with him.

Darboe also rejected Faal’s comparisons between his recent political decision and earlier political arrangements involving figures such as Edi Njie, whom Faal identified as his uncle and who served as health minister under former President Dawda Jawara.

According to Darboe, Njie’s appointment followed an election in which the UP and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had competed separately. He argued that the arrangement was fundamentally different from a pre-election alliance intended to secure electoral victory.

He made similar distinctions regarding Abdoulie Wadda and Abdou Joof, saying their political arrangements were reached after elections and therefore could not reasonably be compared with Faal’s decision to support President Adama Barrow’s re-election bid.

Darboe maintained that the distinction between post-election cooperation and a pre-election alliance was central to his disagreement with Faal’s justification for joining forces with Barrow.

Asked whether the UDP might consider future discussions with the APRC, Darboe dismissed the possibility, asserting that the party no longer existed.