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By Tabora Bojang
The deputy campaign manager of the ruling National Peoples Party, Dou Sanno, who is also presidential adviser on political matters has rejected allegations by the opposition that his party was engaged in vote buying and other clandestine activities in the recently concluded by-election in Bantanjang ward.
According to Sanno, the allegations, peddled mainly by members of the No To Alliance, notably Foni Kansala NAM Hon Almameh Gibba, are false and utterly absurd.
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Hon Gibba had alleged that on the eve of the election, he personally witnessed alleged vote-buying involving Dou Sanno, alongside an imam, an alkalo, and chiefs in the area. “The NPP won because people sold their votes. Some were given D3,000. This is evidence-based, and Dou Sanno cannot deny it because I caught him myself,” Hon Gibba told Kerr Fatou.
Responding to these allegations, Sanno in an audio obtained by The Standard charged that Gibba and his folks are finding it “difficult to accept” the by-election defeat which is forcing them to make such “baseless allegations.”
“I went there [Bantanjang] for business and I got what I wanted with the help of God and everything was clear. Nobody in Bantanjang can say they have seen Dou Sanno, Dr Sabally or any member of our team giving anyone money to buy their votes,” Sanno said.
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“Vote buying is unacceptable under any circumstance and it is the one thing I hate most in politics. It is a highest sin in the eyes of God because it is about taking advantage of people’s poverty by inducing them with materials to get their votes. I will never do it because it damages and shortens one’s political career due to the sin attached,” he said.
He explained that a woman once approached him to surrender her voter’s card to him claiming she was in desperate need of support but he took a decisive step by threatening to take her before the law but people nearby pleaded with him to let her go..
Sanno in turn accused Hon Gibba of acting “greedy” which was why the people of Bantanjang boycotted the election. “He [Gibba] did not bring any development to his constituency. He blocked their chances and opportunities from the government. So the people of Bantanjang boycotted the elections because of Gibba’s attitude,” Sanno said.
