BAC vice chairman explains saga involving ex-chair, councilors

Jallow who also doubles as the Vice Chairman of the BAC claimed that the BAC councilors signed a protest letter and addressed it to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), claiming that Sheriffo Sonko was ‘illegally’ occupying the office of Chairman of the BAC following his dismissal from his former party the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP).

In the protest letter sent to the IEC, he said, they indicated that they would  abstain from council's activities, saying: “The protest letter was sent to the IEC in July and the only time we attended council meetings was in November,” he stated.

He acknowledged the fact that they have therefore betrayed the people they were supposed to serve by not attending council meetings.

Councilor Jallow also admitted to the fact that “they did not follow the due process of the law in order to secure the removal of BAC former chairman Sheriffo Sonko as the letter they sent to the IEC was not enough”.

Jallow, however, accused the former BAC Chairman of “disintegrating the council as all his requests were turned down by the council.”

The witness also claimed to have been attending development committee meetings. However, the “file containing the meetings minutes did not support his claim.

The BAC vice chairman also claimed to be aware of the council’s financial malpractices, while he, however, did not take steps to address them in committee meetings.

“I was in the council just like a puppet,” the witness said.

However, counsel Gomez put it to the witness that it is because he (Ismaila Jallow) wants to be   a “puppet”.

The witness was also shown the 2022 Internal Audit Report. He however, claimed to be seeing the report for the first time.

“These tell a lot about you. In fact, these are indications that you were not doing your work,” Counsel Gomez said.

 “You were not attending meetings, you did not raise substantial issues in council and you did not request audit reports. This means that you don’t care about your people,” Gomez declared.

In response, Jallow said: “I care about my people. The different camps that were created within the council were unnecessary and were not helping the council,” he clarified.