Mr Musa Suso, the deputy youth adviser to President Adama Barrow, has tendered his resignation yesterday.
According to sources close to the Quadrangle in Banjul, Mr Suso wrote on the 7th but delivered the letter yesterday the 8th.
In his resignation letter, he stated: “Having given due consideration to public opinion and in consultation with my family vis-à-vis protecting the image of the President of The Republic of The Gambia, His Excellency, Adama Barrow who appointed me to this high office, I am finally convinced to resign honorably from my new post effective today [Wednesday 7 February 2018].
“While thanking the President for gracefully appointing me to this high post, I want to assure him that I will at all times be willing to serve his government in another capacity in moving this great nation forward. Having tendered my resignation, I wish to assure him once again of my unflinching support and loyalty to the good course for which he intends to build this great nation on.”
Mr Suso himself was not available for immediate comment on the matter and officials at both the PMO and the Office of the President could not be reached.
However, Mr Suso is said to have taken the decision following the loud criticism that met his appointment on 24 January 2018. Most of his critics said he was unfit for the youth advisory role given his conviction in 2001 after drugs were found on a woman he was driving to the airport.
A source in Sukuta told this paper last night: “Musa was very exercised about this whole episode. He felt his name, as well as that of President Barrow, who appointed him was being dragged in the mud. So he decided against our advice to stay on and resigned honorably. Actually, the people shouting all over the place do not know the true story concerning his conviction. You journalists should dig and find out. What you will find out will even surprise you.
“I have known Musa all my life. He has never smoked not to talk of trafficking marijuana. He has never even smoked a cigarette and in his younger days, he was a very active member of the anti-drugs organisation, IOGT, together with Musa Jeng of Bakau and the current SG Habib Drammeh. What happened was, while he was driving to Lamin, a younger brother to his friend whom he met standing on Brikama highway, asked him to drop a lady who was going to the airport and Yundum police who were waiting for them arrested them after removing marijuana from her baggage.
“Even at the police, both the lady and his friend’s younger brother said Musa didn’t know anything about the drug. In fact, that was the first day Musa met that lady. But his enemies who were very powerful at the time, used this to incriminate him and lock him up. The truth will soon be known. You journalists should just scrape the surface and the truth will be out,” the source concluded.
Meanwhile, as we went to press last night, lady councilors from West Coast Region and the Kanifing municipality were visiting Mr Suso at his residence in Sukuta.
