A senior Ministry of Health official has refuted allegations of bribery at the Banjul International Airport.

Allegations were made on social media on Sunday that health officials stationed at the airport were taking bribes from passengers arriving in the country in exchange to be allowed to evade health screening. 

Speaking to journalists on Monday during an orientation ceremony at a drug store in Kotu, Modou Njie director of health promotion said: “Those who are claiming about that [bribery accusation] can they produce evidence? There is no evidence because the people they are seeing are passing [through the arrival hall].”

“These are tourists -these are people with diplomatic passports and it is very clear that those people are allowed to go [on] self-isolation,” he added.

Mr Njie challenged the public to produce evidence of the bribery scandal, saying “there is no evidence about that.”

He however said: “So, we want to appeal to the public that before they start making such accusations about our people, let them investigate – let them find about more. 

“Wherever we go wrong we will apologise because we need to apologise. Where our staff go wrong, we will take responsibility and apologise.”

Mr Njie urged the media to help in eliminating disinformation in the public arena and help to dispel social media fictions.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba