The
opposition United Democratic Party has reacted to the resignation of one Mr
Ebou Ndow, who in a letter, sent to this paper last week, claimed he was the
chairman of the party’s Banjul
Describing the move as pitiful and a tantamount to blatant betrayal, the UDP said in a statement signed by the Secretary General of the UDP youth wing, Mr Ebrima Solo Sandeng, that the impression given by Mr Ndow that “there is any iota of discord in their midst is utterly false, and is calculated to sow the seeds of disunity among its membership and to gain cheap popularity and undeserved public attention”.
In a letter seen by The Point last week, Ndow cited his insecurity, factional in-fights and attacks on each other.
According to him, since the purpose of the 17 years sacrifice he made for the progress and development of the party, by using his time resources and even his energy, has become meaningless, “I need not waste anymore of these against so many odds. I therefore resign without any regrets, without any ill-feeling or anger against anyone.”
Below we reproduce the full text of the UDP rejoinder:
The article in your paper captioned “Youth Wing Adviser Resigns” in which Mr. Ebou Ndow was reported to have resigned from the UDP, attracted my attention.Resignations and departures do take place in the life of all organisations the world over but generally, except in case of crises, people who resign do so without fanfare or recriminations, and I don’t believe that there has been any crisis in our party to warrant the diatribe and fabrications that Mr. Ndow, a founder member of the UDP, made in his interview.
However, for somebody claiming to have served an organization such as the UDP with its noble ideals of building a better Gambia, who has heldpositions that Mr. Ndow claims he holds in the party, resigning over some mysterious personal reasons and announcing it in the press one can only conclude that there is an ulterior motive to it.
We belong to a democratically run party, believing in freedom of the individualand it is Mr. Ndow’s right to leave the party if he so wishes just like it was his right to join. We can only wonder why he found it necessary to leave in the manner he did, throwing innuendoes and casting aspersions on the party that he helped to create and nurture. This is not the act of a Ghorr and the whole truth will be known sooner than later.
The reason why I have taken it upon myself to react to the story in the newspaper is that he has said that he is the adviser of the Youth Wing of the party. I happen to be the present Secretary of the Youth Wing and an Executive member and I know that Mr. Ndow has never been an adviser of the Youth Wing. As a matter of fact, this position does not exist in our party structure. This is obviously part of Mr. Ndow’s imagination and concoction
I am even more amazed that he should be talking about his resignation being discussed at the UDP Central Committee. After all these years in the party, Mr. Ndow still does not know that the role of Central Committee does not include discussing things like resignations.
Mr Ndow has always been held in high esteem in the party and his elderly preaching about unity and loyalty in all circumstances is well known. Our bewilderment and disbelief are incalculable.
For Mr. Ndow to now go against his own stance and try miserably to denigrate the party and its leadership to which he belonged since the party was created, is pitiful and is tantamount to blatant betrayal.
Some party rank and file members have told us that they saw it coming and his behavior and actions showed signs of his intention to betray the party and its leadership. Some of us are therefore not surprised at all
As for his confused utterances on the internal relationships in the party, particularly the Executive Committee, I know for certain that this party, thank God, has always been and remainsas cohesive and united as any other, if not more than any other in this country.
I only want to say in conclusion that the impression Mr. Ndow wants to give to the public that there is any iota of discord in our midst is utterly false, and is calculated to sow the seeds of disunity among our membership, and to gain cheap popularity and undeserved public attention. In this he has failed miserably. This party is now stronger and more united in face of all adversity from any quarters including turncoats.
