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FOROYAA Newspaper (Serrekunda)

Gambia: Leave GPU Or Quit Daily Observer - Observer MD

Musa Barrow

26 March 2008

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Buya Jammeh, a reporter for the Daily Observer, has alleged that he has been told by the Daily Observer Managing Director, Dida Halake, to either resign from his position as a co-opted member of the GPU Executive or lose his position as an Observer reporter.

Mr. Buya Jammeh, who has been recently elected as co-opted member of the Gambia Press Union Executive Board, said he received a call from the Observer boss, on Monday, 24 March, 2008 at about 9.51pm, enquiring whether he (Buya Jammeh) has got a new job. According to him, he responded to him by saying that he was just elected as a co-opted member of the Gambia Press Union Executive Board.

However, Jammeh explained that on the following day, Tuesday, when he returned to work, he was turned back by the paper's Managing Director, Mr. Halake.

Reacting to this move of being turned away by the Observer boss, Mr. Buya Jammeh explicitly told this reporter that he rather prefers to forgo his Observer job than to betray the cause of his fellow journalists, who have entrusted him with a responsibility. According to Buya, serving Gambia Press Union is his fundamental human right, which no one can take away from him.

Buya Jammeh said that Dida Halake also claimed that the recently held GPU election was flawed.

The managing director of the Daily Observer, Dida Halake chastised the Foroyaa Newpaper and the Gambia Press Union. He said the Foroyaa organised a coup d'etat at the GPU office by registering drivers, but he failed to back his claims by mentioning the name of any driver. Asked whether he did ask Buya Jammeh to resign from the GPU or quit the Observer, Mr. Halake responded in the affirmative. He said if the GPU was serious, it should have elected bona fide editors of the Observer such as Lamin Dibba, Abdoulie John and Ebrima Jaw Manneh, who, he claimed were in the news business for a long time, but not to pick up an irrelevant person (Buya Jammeh) from the street to represent the Observer. The Observer boss said that Buya Jammeh should not have opted for a position in the first place and instead should have supported Dibba, John and Jaw Manneh, who were vying for positions. He said Buya's action is improper as he is just a mere a freelance reporter and has no business with the Observer

Mr. Buya Jammeh is a freelance reporter who has previously worked with the shuttered Independent newspaper.

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