Members of the former Brikama Youth and Sports Association BYSA, have written to the Minister of youth and sports Henry Gomez urging him to release an investigation report on the crisis in Brikama Sports. The National Sports Council NSC under the ministry of Youth and Sports sanctioned the investigation. The panelists comprising Ba Jabbi and Lejenju Vitalise completed the probe and submitted a report to the Minister of youth and sports but up until this day no one including the stakeholders who were interviewed knows anything about the report which remained unpublished too.
The letter from Ex-BYSA which was also copied to the President’s Office among other places is reproduced below:
Honourable Minister,
Re: Release of the Investigation Report
on the Brikama Sports impasse
It is with great pleasure that I extend my greetings to you. In spite of your busy schedule the former Executive Committee of Brikama Youth and Sports Committee (BYSC), hereby request your attention and intervention on a very important and relevant issue facing Brikama Sports Committee. We (former Executive) believe in much the same way as the sports community in Brikama, that the current issues engulfing our sports in Brikama has had a devastating effect on not only Brikama Town per se but the entire West Coast Region.
Briefly, for your perusal please be informed that the former Minister of Youth and Sports (Mr. Alieu K. Jammeh), adhering to his advise which at the time was that the Executive Committee members were to restrain from continuing their elected duties until such time when a Report from an investigative Panel he set up was submitted and its recommendations implemented. This Panel comprised Mr. Ba S. Jabbi and Mr. Legenju Vitalis, they concluded their mission after a thorough investigation and submitted their Report.
It was astonishing to see the imposition of an illegally and hastily constituted Committee to spearhead the affairs and running of Brikama Sports Committee. This Committee had the support and wherewithal from certain unscrupulous hidden ‘long hands’ at the National Sports Council.
The Report under the Investigative Panel ordered by the former Minister had been placed in the back burner, and replaced at centre stage by the emergence of a Committee. Why? Honourable Minister, this are the questions we want answers for, because up to the time of writing this letter, the Report is still inaccessible and still collecting dust in the shelves somewhere in your ministry.
This withholding of the Report has led to a lot of damaging consequences as pointed below:
(I) The former Executive has in its possession monies
which belong to the BYSC;
(ii) Sensitive BYSC documents including contracts and agreements have not been handed over;
(iii) The integrity and character of those affected by the report have to be safeguarded, not least because three (3) of the former Executive Members are currently elected members of the National Assembly. They are Hon. Alhagie S. Darboe, Hon. Momodou Camara and Hon. Lamin J Sanneh. This BYSA saga has been used by their political opponents during the last National Assembly elections, denting their character and integrity as allegations of financial misappropriation and malpractices has been tirade towards them.
We will be pleased if you can construe this letter as a follow up to the letter submitted by the current Interim Committee of Brikama Sports to your honorable self. We are relentless in our efforts to clear our names to safeguard our honors and integrity and would stop at no point in time to achieve this. We understand that this Report is suppressed by certain obstacles, which we are aware of and believe your intervention has to become a pragmatic move on our part to get this Report released.
We affirm that interested parties which may include a Group of People or even a Council of elders cannot hold the truth at ransom. The truth has to be revealed and then closure becomes an option not the other way round. This is the dictates of conscience and human dignity. There can’t be any meaningful gains of progress towards reconciliation without the establishment of truth and justice.
I do hereby conclude that immunity is a recipe for retrogression in this new democratic dispensation in our beloved land.
Yours Faithfully,
Buba Mbye Bojang
For Secretary General
Former Executive Committee BYSA
