Suso Foundation denies D3M payment

By Lamin Cham The Musa Suso Foundation for Peace and Development has dismissed as non-sense and unfounded claims by some social media commentators that the foundation received D3M from State House to mobilise people from West Coast Region to meet President Barrow last month. The foundation equally denied claims that people were misled to come to the meeting on the pretext that it was called to recite the Qur’an in prayers for the nation. “Neither of these claims is true. It is not equally true that the meeting was politically motivated because the Suso Foundation is a non-political organization which is open to all Gambians irrespective of their political affiliation. That is why the people who went to State House to pledge support to President Barrow’s development agenda were from different political persuasions,” said Musa Suso, founder of the Foundation in a Standard interview. According to Mr Suso, the Foundation was formed in 2008 as a non-political organization well before the current dispensation and it has never wavered from its principle as an oriented institution. Mr Suso added that it is both naturally unfair and incorrect to associate the foundation with any political group as it neither supported nor allied to any political movement. “We however support the development agenda of President Barrow and the meeting at State House was initiated by the Foundation to get people who share the same intention to support the president’s agenda to meet and extend support to him. We do not need to consult any political party, as we all do not belong to the same party. As an individual support the UDP but when it comes to the foundation’s activities, we don’t project party politics but purely national interests,” Mr Suso said. He described as absurd any suggestion that they were given money to mobilise people. “That’s total misinformation. All our expenses were borne by the Foundation. In fact we got more people that we catered for and had to battle with extra expenditures even now,” he said.]]>