GAP Unveils 2021 Presidential Flag Bearer; Party Leader Accepted Wrongdoings
The Gambia Action Party (GAP) has unveiled Lamin Bojang , a former army officer of The Gambia Armed Forces (GAF) and current Deputy Head of Mission to Russia Federation as presidential candidate at a press conference this week.
Bojang, a native of Kombo Brufut in West Coast Region, was born in 1969 and attended Brufut Primary School, St. Peter’s High School and Gambia College where he studied Nursing. He later enrolled in The Gambia Armed Forces (GAF) in 1995 and rose through the ranks to Brigadier General, a position he held until his retirement in 2012.
After his retirement from the Gambia Armed Forces (GAF), Bojang was appointed into the foreign service and posted to Saudi Arabia as the Deputy Ambassador before being re-appointed as Consul General to Jeddah in 2017.
“The man we are about to unveil today lives an honorable and honest life. He is kind, fair, sincere, hardworking, firm but very fair. His leadership skills have been tested when he was just an adolescent and he passed this test very well which gave him the accolade ‘leadership by example has no substitute’,” said Musa Batchilly, GAP Party Leader and Secretary General.
The GAP Party leader revealed at the presser that the new flag bearer has all what his party and the country needs to transform the country and put it on a strong footing for economic prosperity, adding that though transformation is inevitably turbulent, it has been the new leader’s accomplishments and unique capacity to hold together people with diverse backgrounds that makes him stand out.
Batchilly remains positive about the chances ahead of the new GAP flag bearer which he said, is anchored on his long civil service experience as well as his engagement with the grassroots. He said Bojang’s academic qualification and experience in the Foreign Service will also be an added advantage for him and GAP.
“Lamin Bojang is a candidate that is saleable, and this will be demonstrated in 2021. I am positive that the Gambian people will vote for him massively in the 2021 election and “InShaAllah” GAP will form the government in 2021,” Batchilly disclosed.
Reacting on his legal wrangling that is making headlines in newspapers recently, the GAP Party Leader accepts owing three million CFA (CFA3M) to one Mariam Joof, denying claims that he was on the run stating that he was attending to his daughter’s health. He said he has already started paying Ms. Joof and is ready to complete the balance of payment in the near future.
“I accept that I owe Mariam Joof some money that I have already started paying; I have great respect for this lady, but unfortunately she is being used to tarnish my image and this will not work. I am a very clean man, my reputation cannot be tarnished because I have earned that through my hard work as a businessman and I have been doing business for 30 years,” Batchilly revealed to the press.
The GAP leader continued to reveal that he still owes some people in town and is ready to pay them back, adding that there are a host of other people including politicians who owe money to people and haven’t paid. He said he was at the court on Friday so as to map out ways and means of finalizing the payment to Mariam Joof.
On the “Three Years Jotna” issue, Batchilly said GAP is anchored on peace and that GAP will not be a part of anything that undermines this peace, adding that it is the right of the “Three Years Jotna” movement members to engage in peaceful protest without breaching the peace of the country.
“I am calling on President Adama Barrow to call for a national dialogue that will involve politicians, national assembly members, civic society organizations, God fearing Imams, God fearing Pastors and religious leaders to discuss these important national issues that are currently unfolding,” Batchilly advised President Barrow on the need for the national dialogue.
