The Gambia’s former president, Yahya Jammeh, has responded to rape allegations against him by a beauty queen, Fatou ‘Toufah’ Jallow, “as a smear campaign”.

In a statement issued by the former president’s party, the APRC, and signed by the party’s deputy leader, Ousman Rambo Jatta, said that “the accusations are part of a smear campaign aimed at tarnishing the good reputation of Gambia’s legendary and visionary leader.”

The statement from the APRC came in response to an article in The New York Times last week in which Ms. Jallow came forward publicly for the first time to accuse the president of rape.

The statement said that Ms. Jallow’s account contained “no iota of truth,” and claimed that the accusations were orchestrated by Western corporations.

“The APRC, as a Party, and the Gambian people are tired of the steady stream of unfounded allegations that have been reported against our ex-President,” the statement said.

The statement also rebuked The New York Times for failing to seek clarifications from Mr. Jammeh’s family or the party before publishing the story.

Below we reproduce the full press release from the APRC in response to the sexual assault and rape allegations against former president Yahya Jammeh:

“01 July 2019

To New York Times Correspondent

We received your request dated 18 June 2019.

We wish to inform you that we have read your article on Yaya Jammeh and the rape allegations made against him.

Yaya Jammeh was and still is the Party Leader of APRC.

APRC is utterly disappointed to have been, once again, confronted with malicious allegations against it’s party leader and the ex-President of The Republic of The Gamba.

We are not surprised that the allegations are emanating from Western corporations that have been and will continue to lead smear campaigns aimed at tarnishing the good reputation of Gambia’s legendary and visionary leader.

Western Media, claim that they received credible information of ‘rape and sexual assault’, between 2013 and 2015, perpetrated by Yahya Jammeh, the APRC Party Leader.

The NY Times narrated a one-sided story before seeking clarifications from APRC or Jammeh’s family, or indeed, one of the Protocol Drivers mentioned by Ms Fatou (Toufah) Jallow in her accusations . The story was based on one person’s word against the other with no shred of evidence tendered.

APRC, as a Party, and the Gambian people are tired of the steady stream of unfounded allegations that have been reported against our ex-President. The recent story of rape has no iota of truth, and claims of this nature are often orchestrated by one or more of the following:

1. Sensational journalism
2. Attempts to gain unfair political capital
3. Unfair attempt to benefit from the Financial/Material gain that goes with negative publicity
4. A vengeful interest group who would stop at nothing to see Jammeh ridiculed and brought before law courts over unfounded allegations.

Rape Allegations of this nature are not worth the paper they are written on.

The ex-President has no time to personally react to lies and smear campaigns. He was accused of far graver crimes than rape and most of the accusations have now been proven to be false. The Protocol Driver, Landing Sanyang (not the cynical and calculated Jammeh surname used by Toufah), has now publicly refuted Toufah’s claims. Several other modelling peers and colleagues of Toufah have now rubbished her allegations, publicly, and on Social Media. Toufah was reported missing by her mother at a time when phone records, during the ‘missing persons’ investigations into her case, conducted by The Gambia Government, showed that she was in constant contact with the same mother who reported her missing, feared kidnapped. All these incidents raise doubts as to the character of Ms Jallow and we wonder what her motivations are. We cannot understand why a man of high-standing like Jammeh, would rape an 18 year old he was helping develop academically and professionally. Absurd! The pageants travelled in and out of the Presidential Palaces (State House and Kanilai) together, in the presence of other people, and they never went as individuals, according to their driver and other beauty pageants.

Jammeh is a very respectable, God-fearing and a pious leader, who has nothing but respect for Gambian women and women around the world. That was evident throughout his reign with countless legislations he passed to protect previously abused Gambian women and children. One of such laws enacted under him was the abolition of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Please feel free to contact APRC, in future, on matters relating to development. We have developed Gambia at an unprecedented scale, within a short space of time. APRC can’t be compared with any other Gambia Government, past and present and that cannot be disputed.

Your Sincerely

Ousman Rambo Jatta

Deputy Party Leader

APRC”