Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, Minister of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services, has vehemently refuted claims that he misled the public about the controversy surrounding Auditor General Modou Ceesay’s nomination.
In a West Coast Radio interview, Dr. Ceesay maintained that he never said lies about the situation. He maintained that Modou Ceesay first agreed to take the Auditor General post before turning it down.
“I would be too bold to approach the Gambian people and
I would never purposefully and deliberately mislead people in order to deceive them. It’s not in my character or nature to do that,” Dr. Ceesay said.
He rejected claims that he made up the tale, calling his detractors “dishonest, gullible, or driven by ulterior motives.”
He declared, “I would never come here and lie to you, but those who really were making insinuations that I was lying are either dishonest, gullible, or had an ulterior motive.”
Dr. Ceesay claims that his first knowledge was that Modou Ceesay had agreed to the appointment and that he only decided to turn it down later. He maintained that a lot of people made snap judgments without carefully considering the circumstances that transpired.
“What do you do as an intelligent person if you have two sides to a story? And those who are supposed to be educated are saying this. “They claim to be educated,” he said. He remarked, “I have seen people jump to conclusions, but you critically analyze these two sides and look at gaps within the stories before making a conclusion and then limiting it to benefit of the doubt.”
Despite a letter from Auditor General Modou Ceesay confirming that he had rejected the position outright and never accepted it, the minister stuck to his earlier remarks. Dr. Ceesay admitted that “he wrote a letter, I believe two nights ago, saying that he never accepted the job and he automatically declined it,” but he clarified that his own explanation was predicated on the facts he had at the time.
