President Adama Barrow has used his last campaign rally to blast former TRRC lead counsel Essa Faal for using the commission to get votes.

Faal is among five opposition figures seeking to unseat President Barrow in Saturday’s presidential election. 

He had earlier accused Barrow of using the OIC projects to get votes. 

But Barrow fired back accusing the lawyer turned politician of using his TRRC fame to get votes from Gambians.

“I called the minister and told him, you see the man you brought to the TRRC, he is playing politics and I told him he will look to be a president, but he said no, he will not do that. I told him I swear I tell you that he will want to be a president. 

“And he [the minister] went and confronted him and he [Essa Faal] said he has no interest in politics. I again told him [the minister] that the day is coming and you will tell me, I will tell you this,” Barrow told a rally.

“One day he came to visit me and he told me he wanted a business and he needed land that the government can allocate to him where he can build homes and sell them. 

“But the moment I met him, I jokingly said one of Gambia’s most famous men visited me today and he laughed and said no Mr President, no I am not, but I know then that he is into politics.

“He was appointed to do a job and fight for victims but instead he is using the platform to do politics, that’s really unfortunate,” he added.

“You took the TRRC and made it a political tool because he used TRRC to earn himself fame by doing politics and he is still using the TRRC to do politics.  But I want to inform the victims that I will not use them to do politics. 

“If I am looking for votes I will use other means but not to use the TRRC where you have victims who are suffering from their pains, and you use those people to get votes,” Barrow said.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba