By Lamin Njie
Ba Kawsu Fofana on Thursday declared ‘I’m a great marabout’ as he testified at the TRRC over problems he encountered during former president Yahya Jammeh’s rule.
He began with his education odyssey which stretches to as far as in Saudi Arabia.
In mid 2000, Mr Fofana returned to the country and took up a career in preaching, one that was to be shrouded in a lot of controversy and harassment.
His brand of preaching the word of God is one of fearlessness and calling people out for who he claims they are.
Mr Fofana wasn’t afraid of speaking truth to even former President Yahya Jammeh. As a result, he was arrested in May 2012 and taken to the NIA where he was detained for nine days and tortured twice.
In August of 2012, a group of NIA officials led by their boss Yankuba Badjie returned to Ba Kawsu’s house to arrest him for a second time but he managed to escape arrest.
On Thursday, Mr Fofana gave testimony to the TRRC and detailed how two top Gambian imams orchestrated his ordeal during former president Jammeh’s rule.
He told the probe it was Supreme Islamic Council’s Momodou Lamin Touray who went to President Jammeh and told him he (Ba Kawsu) was the person instigating religious division in the country.
On Imam Abdoulie Fatty, he said the top imam had told Jammeh he (Ba Kawsu) insults him and his tribe.
Ba Kawsu in his three hours and ten minutes testimony then went on to bare how he suffered arrest and torture on the orders of the former president.
On claims he disappeared when an attempt for him to be arrested for a second time, Mr Fofana declared smiling: “I am a great marabout, I always had God with me.”
He drank from his trademark kettle 11 times with TRRC counsel Essa Faal on occasions teasing him that he also needed to drink from the kettle.
