Hamat Bah has claimed the TRRC at some point did not want to work with Essa Faal in a bombshell revelation.
Speaking during President Adama Barrow’s rally at Buffer Zone on Wednesday night, Mr Bah spent the entire time fact-checking claims Essa Faal made in an interview with a foreign journalist.
He said: “We will attack anyone who attacks the government of Adama Barrow. We will respond to anyone who says anything that is not true about the government. Today, I was very disappointed. I listened to one audio by Essa Faal and I was shocked. We have been properly grooming our young emerging politicians. Since we started our campaign, we never mention their name. It was only once we attacked Essa Faal and it was me. The president told me these are young politicians and we should let them grow. This is why we never mentioned their name until the tour’s end. But if you’re made a candidate and you grants a long interview with a foreign journalist and saying things that are not true, we will respond to you. Let Essa Faal listen to me carefully and I will tell him one after the other and tell him it’s not true. And if someone is seeking power, you have to have credibility no matter how much you want to be in power.
“The first thing Essa Faal said is that Gambian politics before does require education. That’s an insult to the first independence leaders of this country. He said those people were not educated. Does he want to tell me IM Garba Jahumpa was not educated? Does he want to tell me JC Faye wasn’t educated? Does he want to tell me Pierre Sarr Njie didn’t have knowledge? Does he want to tell me Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara didn’t have knowledge? Does he want to tell me Assan Musa Camara didn’t have knowledge? Does he want to tell me Sakouba Ceesay didn’t have knowledge? Sheriff Ceesay didn’t have knowledge? I can go on till tomorrow. These people were educated. So for him to insinuate those people are not educated means it’s you who should go and learn and also learn your history.
“Secondly, he said those who were wealthy were not into politics. Those people were not poor people. If he thinks he is rich, we respect him but our people who were here before were educated and rich. He has misled Gambians.
“He also said he was the one in charge of the TRRC. He was not in charge. He was an employee as a prosecutor. The journalist said that and we expected him to correct him to say he was not in charge. If the journalist didn’t know, he should make him know.
“And he said Gambian politics is dirty. That Gambians would be given cooking pots, threshers etc. And he said he didn’t want to enter into politics but the government grew suspicious of him and was hunting him. I swear Adama Barrow’s government has never gone after anyone. That too is not true. We knew Essa Faal will run for office and to prove that, when we were giving out the Covid rice, he too was going around giving Covid rice and writing people’s numbers and we were aware of what he said to the point they wanted to remove him from the TRRC but for the intervention of President Barrow. Because at that point the commission didn’t want to work with him anymore. And he was summoned, he knows what he was told and I also know it.
“He said the election has been rigged because they are giving out cooking pots and other things. He said running for president is difficult. He said he doesn’t have a structure, that he doesn’t have people for him in places. If he believes in his education, he should know what is involved in running for president in a country.
“And he said Adama Barrow’s ministers are each given three cars by the government. I want to tell Essa Faal that that is not true. Any minister you see has only one car and one utility car which makes it two. Let him tell Gambians which minister has three cars.
“He also said Gambia government has failed to reconcile the Gambian people. That was part of his responsibility because he was working for the truth and reconciliation commission. Because they even submitted their report, Essa Faal was gone. Who would Essa Faal blame? What we expected was he would follow everything to its logical conclusion and support the victims until they have their justice.”
