By Sainey Darboe, our US correspondent
Former APRC Youth Mobiliser and Welfare officer at Gambian Embassy in the US, Pierre Minteh, has branded as “malicious and stupid lies” allegations of using the plight of a US deportee Ebou Gai for political capital.
The rebuttal follows allegations by former AFPRC junta spokesman, Ebou Jallo, who recounted a conversation with family members of Mr Gai, accusing APRC of using him for political purposes.
Speaking in an interview with Gunjuronline, Pierre Minteh said:
“It is all lies, they are stupid and malicious. I only had contact with Mr Gai on 31 March after he had spoken to Gambians of his ordeal on Kerr Fatou show.
So how can any one claim that myself or the APRC were trying to use him?
His interview on GRTS was already done and I later came to have contact with him. You can hear him in the audio telling me that the interview he had on GRTS was going viral and more than 3 million people viewing it.
“My contact with him was only to exchange pleasantries and to show him solidarity. That’s all but he was the one who responded to my audio by explaining all that and urged me to share what he said to our chat groups.”
On APRC’s chances of winning elections in the new dispensation following the defenestration of the Jammeh regime, he declared:
“We are still a force because Gambians have realised that it was a wrong move to see Jammeh go. All sectors of the economy are failing. There is no positive thing that is impacting on the lives of Gambians. We are optimistic of winning elections beginning with the local government elections.”
Pierre Minteh then twisted the knife, accusing former APRC supporter-turned-adversary Ebou Jallow of spreading fallacies with malice.
He postulated: “No one in the APRC spoke to Mr Gai before he made that interview with Kerr Fatou.
In fact, no one in the APRC executive knows Pa Ebou Gai. So how on earth would they be able to use him to say anything against anyone or the government?”
“For Ebou to claim that I or the APRC influenced Mr Gai to go on television to mislead Gambians is utter nonsense, malicious and misleading,” he said.
