Mai Fatty claims he walked out of an interview on Eye Africa TV because the journalist was treating him with contempt. 

The former Interior Minister cut short a chat with journalist Momodou Lamin Jammeh after he was asked about corruption allegations involving him and Belgian company Semlex. 

Mr Fatty has now spoken about his decision to walk out and denied he was thin skinned.

“I terminated the interview at some point after enduring almost an hour of sustained contempt. As a result few people wrongly attributed the reason to the Simlex question. 

“Let me remind them again: I was absolutely cleared by the Gambia Government of not doing anything wrong or illegal, through Cabinet via Ministry of Justice.

“I terminated the interview because I felt being disrespected and treated with contempt by the interviewer. It is a known fact that I have never ran away from the media or failed to answer a question. Yet, I will NOT permit any person to treat me with contempt simply because I am a public figure. 

“Everyone, whether politician or not, has a right to human dignity, and fair hearing, including me. You can’t ask a question and condition me to give you the answer you want. Yours is to ask and mine to answer. Let the public decide,” Mr Fatty wrote on his Facebook page. 

“Lastly granting an interview is not the right of a journalist. It’s my choice to grant or not. If I do, be professional and allow me the opportunity to respond without putting words into my mouth or extracting from me a preconceived answer in your mind.”

Meanwhile Momodou has defended his line of questioning in a Facebook reacting to Mr Fatty’s comments.

“Yes, I like Hon. Mai Fatty naturally and I will continue to treat him with dignity and respect like any other person. But hey – that won’t stop me from asking him tough, tough relevant questions anytime he is on “Ifang Bondi” [show].

“My style will remain the same, nothing absolutely will make me change it.”