{"id":86034,"date":"2025-09-15T07:28:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T07:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party"},"modified":"2025-09-15T07:38:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T07:38:41","slug":"chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party","title":{"rendered":"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Mod K. Ceesay, the chief of staff and a cabinet minister, publicly invited Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda to join President Adama Barrow\u2019s National People\u2019s Party (NPP) following Bensouda\u2019s resignation from the executive of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP).<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Peter Gomez on Coffee Time, Mr. Ceesay framed the invitation as part of a broader effort by the ruling party to attract young leaders and community figures across the political spectrum. \u201cI am inviting people like Talib and everybody else to join the NPP,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are a political party, and we respect every Gambian regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Bensouda, who is viewed as one of the UDP\u2019s rising stars, has not publicly commented on whether he intends to accept the offer. When asked whether the mayor had visited the State House, Mr. Ceesay said he was unaware.<\/p>\n<p>The chief of staff also used the occasion to criticize the UDP\u2019s internal politics, pointing to what he described as structural challenges and a lack of credible competition in the party\u2019s recent selection of Ousainou Darboe as its presidential candidate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe outcome was so obvious to some of us who follow politics that this was not a surprise; it was expected, and it was just basically a very simple exercise process\u2014nothing new\u2014but the process changes really were worrying, and really, people, if that is what demonstrates internal democracy in a political party, then definitely we have a long way to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ceesay suggested that Mr. Darboe\u2019s continued leadership\u2014he is now the UDP\u2019s flag bearer for a sixth time\u2014should put to rest the president seeking a third term.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe UDP flag bearer is now going for a 6th term, so then Adama can also go for a third term,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Gambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. Mod K. Ceesay, the chief of staff and a cabinet minister, publicly invited Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda to join President Adama Barrow\u2019s National People\u2019s Party (NPP) following Bensouda\u2019s resignation from the executive of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP). Speaking to Peter Gomez on Coffee Time, Mr. Ceesay framed the invitation as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":86033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-86034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-parties","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mod K. Ceesay, the chief of staff and a cabinet minister, publicly invited Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda to join Preside ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mod K. Ceesay, the chief of staff and a cabinet minister, publicly invited Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda to join Preside ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T07:28:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T07:38:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/09\/sm_1757909291.631149.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-15T07:28:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-15T07:38:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party\"},\"wordCount\":324,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/09\/sm_1757909291.631149.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"parties\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party\",\"name\":\"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party - Gambia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/09\/sm_1757909291.631149.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-15T07:28:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-15T07:38:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Mod K. Ceesay, the chief of staff and a cabinet minister, publicly invited Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda to join Preside ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/09\/sm_1757909291.631149.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/09\/sm_1757909291.631149.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/\",\"name\":\"Gambia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party - Gambia","description":"Mod K. Ceesay, the chief of staff and a cabinet minister, publicly invited Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda to join Preside ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party","og_description":"Mod K. Ceesay, the chief of staff and a cabinet minister, publicly invited Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda to join Preside ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party","og_site_name":"Gambia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2025-09-15T07:28:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-09-15T07:38:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/09\/sm_1757909291.631149.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party","datePublished":"2025-09-15T07:28:03+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-15T07:38:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party"},"wordCount":324,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/09\/sm_1757909291.631149.jpg","keywords":["Gambia"],"articleSection":["all news","parties"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party","name":"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party - Gambia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/09\/sm_1757909291.631149.jpg","datePublished":"2025-09-15T07:28:03+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-15T07:38:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Mod K. Ceesay, the chief of staff and a cabinet minister, publicly invited Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda to join Preside ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/09\/sm_1757909291.631149.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/09\/sm_1757909291.631149.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/chief-of-staff-urges-bensouda-to-join-ruling-party#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Chief of Staff Urges Bensouda to Join Ruling Party"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/","name":"Gambia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}