Momodou Sabally has vowed he will not apologise to businessman Abubakary Jawara – dramatically setting the stage for a possible legal battle.
Lawyers for businessman Jawara wrote to Sabally demanding he apologises to the businessman within seven days for ‘falsehoods’ or be to sued at the high court.
The lawyers say Sabally at various periods made unfounded statements damaging to the reputation of Jawara. Sabally confirmed receiving a letter from Jawara’s lawyers.
The former secretary general reacted publicly as soon as The Fatu Network broke the news by saying: “An apology from Momodou Sabally? That will NOT happen in a BILLION years, inshaa Allah. Let Barrow and his cronies try another channel to silence me. This one will not work! #CantCageMe.”
According to Jawara’s lawyer Christopher Mene, Sabally “on or about the 11th of January 2021, you made a widely shared post on your Facebook page on which you posted a picture of my client and sought to draw a link between my client and the drug seizure.”
The lawyer argued comments from Sabally linking his client to the Banta Keita drug seizure are clearly defamatory of his client as “it disparages the reputation of my client or tends to lower him in the estimation of right thinking members of the society generally or exposes him to hatred, ridicule, scandal, odium, contempt and similar feelings”.
The lawyer then says his client demands that Sabally ceases and desists from continuing to propagate ‘unfounded’ stories about his client.
“You are further given seven days to publish a detailed withdrawal of your post and tender an unreserved apology to my client for the false statements made against him on all social media platforms through which the falsehoods were perpetrated (WhatsApp Voice Notes, Freedom Radio and Facebook). Should you fail to comply with the above request within seven days from receipt of this letter, I have instructions to bring an action against you before the high court of The Gambia for damages, including exemplary damages for defamation without any further warning,” Mene said in his letter.
