By Omar Bah
The leader of the Gambia Moral Congress has categorically denied issuing a recording making the rounds on social media in which he was purportedly praising former president Jammeh and accusing President Barrow’s ministers of corruption.
In the audio obtained by The Standard, the speaker whose voice has an uncanny resemblance to that of Mai Ahmed Fatty’s, said Jammeh is expected to return to the country by the year’s end.
The impersonator stated:“President Barrow is a good person but he should not allow his ministers to sabotage his government. We should be careful on how we handle former president Jammeh. I urge Barrow to immediately establish a commission of enquiry to investigate the fire incident in Kanilai.”
Reports reaching The Standard have intimated that police have arrested, questioned and released a man in connection with the matter.
Fatty told this paper: “Let it be known that I did not make any such audio. The police are actively digging into it. I understand a suspect was arrested and released. Investigation is active.
“On the day the audio in question was said to have been released, I was out of town. I listened to the ramblings and incoherent delivery made in Wolof interspersed with mispronounced English words. To me, it didn’t sound like me at all. However, my attention was also alerted to countless audios from different fora with so many comments by a lot of people who thought it was I.”
“It didn’t matter to me until I got a phone call from a prominent APRC stalwart who is also a friend thanking me for expressing solidarity with former president Jammeh, making reference to the audio. That was the exact moment I realised it was absolutely necessary to make a public disclaimer and dissociate myself. It comes with the territory. There will always be those who would seek to impersonate, to mislead supporters and sympathisers for the wrong reasons. In some countries, this is often done by intelligence agencies. I am very certain that any such mischief will fail disastrously.”
Fatty added: “This is not the first time that mischief makers attempted to impersonate me. The public should be informed that when I release an audio, it would be carried by GMC related media or my office directly as the source of circulation. Anything outside that would be fake.”
