Momodou Sabally has said police should have questioned Bakary Badjie, minister of Youth and Sports over his conduct in wife’s travel allowance saga. 

Mr Badjie is facing corruption allegation after a leaked letter showed payment of nearly £3,000 to his wife who is a non-government official for trips to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and Islamic Solidarity Games in Turkey.

Following the public backlash Mr Badjie has pledged to repay the money to the government but there has not been any official acknowledgment of repayment. 

Sabally, a senior official of the opposition UDP party, said the per diem could have been better spent on victims of the recent floods in the Greater Banjul Area. 

“Bakary Badjie is saying he would repay his wife’s travel allowance after committing a crime. And if truly the laws were implemented in this country Mr Badjie should have been taken to the police station, but they will not do that because they don’t want to speak the truth,” Sabally said.  

“The minister of Youths and Sports paying himself and his wife travel allowance approximately 500,000 dalasis in a country where people are suffering, people are hungry, and youths are unemployed. 

“But this all policy failure especially the Vice President Alieu Badara Joof who keeps blaming other government officials for not doing their jobs and for being corrupt. But what has he said about this [saga,” he added.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba