Independent candidate
By Buba Gagigo
Team Essa Mbye Faal has accused a man who identified himself as Yusupha Jatta, a staff of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the liaison officer under the Bwiam command of spying on them at their rallies on Tuesday.
A member of the team, Sisawo Fatty said Jatta was following them since Brikama and recording their speeches before they caught him.
“Some of our ladies noticed that he was following us since Brikama. He asked for a t-shirt and asked them where they were going. He then followed us to Foni Brefet. He was there isolated and he was having a phone and recording. He tried to have the names of every speaker. But unfortunately for him, we noticed him when I (Sisawo Fatty) was coming to talk. As I was talking about the foreign forces, he kept asking people my name. People got scared of why he was asking my Name.
“That was the time the boys went there and others came to inform me. They approached him. In the process, they checked his phone and found out that he was recording everything about our meeting and he was sending it to someone. That’s the time I spoke to him personally, he told me he is an SIS (NIA) operative who is responsible for this area (Brefet). I asked him for his ID, he said he did not come with his ID card, but he confirmed to me that he is an SIS agent. He told me his boss sent him. That is the time I called one of their Directors who spoke with Yusupha (NIA agent) on the phone and later apologized to me,” Sisawo told Kerr Fatou.
The Team Essa Mbye Faal’s Campaign Chairman Alagie Sanyang has also confirmed the incident.
“I and the Imam took him to the Imam’s house to have a conversation with him. I asked him- you said you work for the SIS and told him to swear to God that he works for the SIS. My second question was ‘are you doing this because you want to do it on your own or you are doing it because you are sent by your organization?’ He said it is a command to him that he should go and spy on our people. That was the time I called our lawyer and informed him. But we have given him back his phone and everything,” he narrated
Meanwhile, the media officer of the team Kebba Camara, a journalist said after Jatta confessed to them that he is the NIA agent assigned to spy on the team; they are working with the authorities to identify the man and his purpose of being at the meeting.
“Sisawo Fatty actually spotted this man who identified himself as NIA and was assigned to spy on the Essa Faal’s team. He took note of every speaker and actually was more focused and interested on what Sisawo was saying. When he was interrogated, he confirmed that he was a spy. Essa’s team is notified and still working with the authorities to identify the man and what was his purpose at the meeting,” Camara said.
Efforts to reach the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) proved futile.
This medium has obtained a video recording in which the man in question identified himself as Yusupha Jatta, a staff of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the liaison officer under the Bwiam command; but he claimed that he was not with his ID card when the team asked him to produce it for identification purposes.