Mayor Ahmed Talib Bensouda of Kanifing Municipal Council has paid an ’emotional’ tribute to his predecessor the late Yankuba Colley, who died last week in Turkey after battling an undisclosed illness.

In his tribute, mayor Bensouda described the late mayor Colley as a “jealous-free man” who always offered him advice despite the two of them coming from different political parties.

“Yankuba Colley was not jealous. Despite, we came from different political parties, he travelled to my office and greeted me and offered me some advice. That shows that he was a man of all people. This crowd who gathered here today shows how good Yankuba Colley was to Gambians. He used to call and visit me and I would call him uncle and he called me nephew,” he said in the middle of a huge crowd of mourners in Talinding.

Bensouda replaced the late Colley in the 2018 mayoral election. Colley had been in the helm of the council leadership from 2008 to 2018 under the Jammeh regime.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba