By: Malanding Darboe
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of APP- SOBEYA alliance, Ousainou Bobb, has swiftly reacted to presidential adviser Momodou Sabally’s attack against the alliance’s leader, describing it as “vitriolic diatribe”.
Mr. Bobb argued that Sabally’s attack against Faal “is nothing more than the desperate howl of a disgraced political mercenary whose tongue, as history attests, is perpetually for sale to the highest bidder”.
In a strong rebuttal, Bobb said: “Sabally, a man whose career is a grotesque tapestry of opportunism, betrayal, and shameless sycophancy, dares to cast aspersions on a figure of Faal’s calibre, a renowned legal luminary whose contributions to justice and governance on both national and international stages dwarf Sabally’s pitiful legacy of plunder and propaganda. Let us dissect this charlatan’s audacity and lay bare the hollow shell of his so-called “intellect.”
“Sabally’s tenure as Head of the Civil Service under Yahya Jammeh’s tyrannical regime was not a testament to intellectual prowess but a masterclass in servility and complicity. He was Jammeh’s lapdog, a willing instrument in the dictator’s machinery of theft and oppression, gleefully facilitating the looting of Gambia’s coffers while hurling venom at political opponents, including, infamously, his own Mandinka tribe. The Janneh Commission, a body established to excavate the rot of Jammeh’s era, rightly branded Sabally a pariah, banning him for life from public office. This verdict stands as an indelible stain on his name. Yet, this ban was not the end of his disgrace but merely the prelude to his next act of political prostitution.” He added:“Unemployed and irrelevant after Jammeh’s fall, Sabally slithered into the ranks of the United Democratic Party (UDP), a party he once vilified with the ferocity of a rabid attack dog under Jammeh’s command. There, he reinvented himself as a “commando” for Ousainou Darboe, only to unleash a torrent of invective against President Adama Barrow’s administration, calling it everything from incompetent to corrupt. But principles, it seems, are a currency Sabally has never possessed. When Barrow dangled the carrot of a presidential advisory role, Sabally abandoned the UDP faster than a rat fleeing a sinking ship, swallowing his own bile and morphing into Barrow’s newest mouthpiece. This is not the behaviour of an intellectual; it is the hallmark of a scavenger, a man whose survival hinges on state patronage and whose every utterance is a transactional bid for relevance.”
Bobb contended that Sabally’s attack on Essa Faal reeks of irony so thick it could choke a nation.
“He accuses Faal of undermining the Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission (TRRC), yet it was Sabally’s own actions under Jammeh that necessitated such a body in the first place. Faal, a distinguished jurist with an impeccable record at the International Criminal Court and the United Nations, earned his role at the TRRC through a career built on merit and integrity, not, as Sabally falsely claims, through backroom deals. Sabally’s assertion that Faal’s appointment lacked “meritocracy” is laughable, given that his own rise under Jammeh was a product of loyalty to a despot, not competence. If anyone embodies the “yekkalanteh” cronyism Sabally decries, it is Sabally himself, a man whose every job has been a reward for grovelling, not a recognition of ability,” he argued.
According to the party, President Barrow’s recent remark to Muslim leaders at State House that “being the most educated does not qualify one to be a good worker,” “was a thinly veiled jab at the likes of Sabally, a supposed “intellectual” whose education has yielded nothing but a trail of betrayal and disgrace”.
“Barrow knows Sabally’s ilk: educated in name but bankrupt in character. The president delights in watching this political clown juggle his own contradictions, retracting every venomous word he once spat about the administration now that his paycheck depends on it. Voters, too, see through this farce. Sabally’s inconsistencies, his flip-flopping from Jammeh to UDP to Barrow, render him a laughingstock, a man whose credibility lies in tatters at the feet of his own greed,” Bobb maintained.
“In contrast, Essa Mbye Faal stands as a beacon of principle and purpose. His career, spanning prosecution and defence at the Hague, representation of The Gambia at the United Nations, and leadership at the TRRC, reflects a commitment to justice, accountability, and national progress that Sabally could never comprehend, let alone emulate. Faal’s vision for a Gambia rooted in meritocracy and fairness is not “fake,” as Sabally alleges, but a lived reality crafted through decades of rigorous service. Sabally, meanwhile, offers nothing but noise, a cacophony of insults from a man too cowardly to build anything of his own, too dependent to survive without a ‘‘master’’ to serve,” he added.
He stated that the APP-SOBEYA leader “is far too occupied with the serious work of advancing The Gambia’s future to dignify a scavenger like Sabally with a personal response”.
“But as the spokesperson of the APP-Sobeyaa Party, I will not hesitate to consign Sabally and his ilk to their rightful place: the dustbin of rotten countrymen who have sold their souls and integrity for money and position. Let Sabally wallow in his irrelevance, a cautionary tale of what happens when ambition outstrips honour. The Gambia deserves better than his venom; it deserves leaders like Faal, and we will not rest until that vision is realized,” concluded Bobb.
