By Sulayman Bah
Gambia’s parliamentary committee on youth and sports has debunked giving National Sports Council the go-ahead to suspend the trio bosses of the Football House.
This comes much as an unfolding drama after the council in a viral letter this week claimed to be acting on the recommendation parliament’s select youth and sports committee, who , allegedly ordered for action be taken on the Gambia Football Federation regarding tax-fraud.
Opening up on the subject matter for the first time since announcement of their purported suspension this week, GFF revealed yesterday they’ve received a letter from parliament disassociating itself from the council’s move to sanction its officials.
Foroyaa Sport on Thursday divulged the suspension was rescinded Wednesday evening though Football House says it was furnished with the letter lifting the ban on its executives yesterday.
In the dispatch from parliament signed by the legislative organ’s clerk Momodou Ceesay and seen by Foroyaa Sport, the council were also urged to ‘correct’ their statement on the saga before closure of business day yesterday with parliament calling it a ‘misrepresentation of facts.’
‘..the select committee on Youth Sports did not in any way instruct the NSC suspend the GFF executive members as contained in the dispatch ref above..’
Sports Council’s chairman Borri Darboe Thursday afternoon summoned for a press conference at his Julbrew office before cancelling it in the eleventh hour.
This is not the first time the council is imposing bans on the aforesaid persons after they did a similar thing at the onset of this protracted saga, warning them further to desist from coming any close to the Football House headquarters – a thing Kabba and his crew refused to heed to, threatening instead to drag the council to the courts.
With the latest dramatic turn of events, it’s unclear what’s next between the two institutions –the GFF and NSC –whose protracted furore has stretched for eleven months.
Below we reproduce portions of the letter from parliament privy to Foroyaa Sport.
‘It should be recalled that the issue of alleged tax fraud involving the GFF was brought to the attention of the select committee after the Inspector General of police declined the request by the National Sports Council (NSC) to conduct an investigation into the matter citing legal implications. The committee on June 14th 2018 summoned the IGP and recommended that he comply with the NSC request to investigate the alleged tax fraud immediately and report back to the Committee on July 16th 2018.
The IGP submitted the investigation report and the committee on 1st August 2018 in a missive ref ME: 19/54/02/IV/(71) forwarded the report to your office for your records and action. The submission of the investigation report to the NSC by the committee does not imply any directive to suspend GFF Executive members.
You are therefore required to correct this misrepresentation before closure of business today (Thursday).’
