Dear Sabally Momodou ,
If your unnecessary, unprovoked vitriolic attack on Counsel Essa Faal was limited and specific to personal and political disagreements, we would have found it equally unnecessary to respond to or reason with you. Your misguided diatribe was motivated by Essa’s work at TRRC where he distinguished himself as an unrelenting champion of victims of Yahya Jammeh’s decades long bloody and barbaric campaign which, by the way, you have no record of condemning. Your vilification of Essa Faal in relation to his work at TRRC, therefore, was an attack on TRRC as an institution and would be met with unequivocally legitimate and outright rejection by conscientious Gambians.
But for some of us who have observed your political evolution over time, this did not come as a surprise. You seem to have a lurking but consuming bitterness for people who probed Yahya Jammeh and have taken uncompromising position on the need for his accountability. In fact, you share this strong animosity with all of Jammeh’s minions and apologists who turned out to be your loudmouth defenders and cheerleaders in your shameful stunt against Essa Faal. We have seen how you deployed similar blistering and nonsensical crusade against the Bensouda Family with a view to tainting their public image and dishonor their legacy. In that futile journey too, you had APRC and Jammeh’s soulless and criminal sympathizes backing you up in every step of the way. What all of these point to, among others, is your continuous unalloyed loyalty to Yahya Jammeh, your obstructionist desire to bend the course of Justice and your unquenchable appetite for controversy where there is need for none.. I call on you to get off your high horse, tone down the tempo and cease projecting yourself as a malleable pawn to attack decent Gambians who espouse and share great vision for Gambia and Gambians.
And just so we are very clear: we will defend Essa Faal’s work at TRRC, all the Commisioners and staff of TRRC and TRRC itself without regret against any and all attempts by Yahya Jammeh apologists and anyone who share their pervasive romanticization of murder, torture, disappearances, corruption and other acts of cruelty against Gambians and non-Gambians . Like everyone else atTRRC, Faal hasn’t done any damn wrong to anyone. He was only doing his job as expected by Gambian people and as required by the Commision’s mandate.
To Essa and all the honorable men and women who worked and are still working at TRRC, we are hugely appreciative of your service to the country. Your sacrifice, bravery and dedication can never be tarnished nor diminished by agents of disgruntleness, bitterness, division and impunity. You deserve our appreciation and gratitude; not condemnation or ridiculing…
By Zakaria Kemo Konteh, US
