Tombong Saidy:

To begin with, let me give your an anecdote here. During the early days of
the coup, Lt Yahya Jammeh, as he was then styled, called a press conference
at State House, during which he was trying to make the case that deposed
President Jawara "was corrupt". He then handed over to us (the media) some
documents to try and back his claims (that Jawara "was corrupt").

Now, in one of the papers Lt Yahya Jammeh gave us, regarding an ALLEGED
transactions between Nigerian businessman Chief Arthur Nzerebe and Jawara,
we did come across the name of the Gambian lawyer who was "acting on behalf
of Jawara" at the time. I therefore contacted the lawyer (whose name I need
not mention) and asked him his reaction to the allegations Lt Jammeh was
making against Jawara, his client.

And, in reply, the lawyer gave me a fitting answer when he said, and I
quote: "Ebrima, as a lawyer, I am just like a taxi driver. I take you to
where you want me to take you. Whoever pays me for a drive, I'll drive him
in my car"...

Well, Tombong, as a reporter, I am only forwarding e-mails as I received
them and, of course, from people that I trust. However, the views in my
sources' e-mails do not necessarily reflect those of mine. And in actual
fact, I do try to exercise good judgment before forwarding any e-mail to the
L.

Now, let me give you an example: A GRTS staff in The Gambia, recently sent
me an e-mail which he/she wanted me to forward to the L, but I decided not
to send it to the L, because I wasn't sure whether he/she was telling the
truth.

In the e-mail, the sender was alleging that you are indeed Kebba Jobe. Why?
Because, according to him/her, you are the one who normally goes to the
newsroom and takes news items from them, and then the next moment, those
news items are sent to the L under the name "Kebba Jobe".

The e-mail writer indicated, for example, that there were certain
postings/information "Kebba Jobe" forwarded to the L, which no one at
Gamtel, apart from you (Tombong), could have gotten access to. But I sent a
reply to the person who wrote to me, in which I told him/her that even
though what he/she said made some sense, I for one, was not convinced that
Tombong, of all people, would be writing under a pen name since he (Tombong)
doesn't hide his support for Jammeh from anyone.

Anyway, I just thought I should bring this to your attention to buttress the
point I am trying to make.

Regards,
Ebrima

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