The Reason why Editor Cham fled Gambia!!!!

Disturbing Revelations Surround The Escape Of The Daily Observer Editor

Cham’s Flash Drive implicating Momodou Sanyang, Director General of GRTS, Pa Malick Faye, current MD of the Observer Company and Dr Saja Taal, former  MD of the Observer Company Intercepted!

By Staff Reporter  Modou  Jammeh, Banjul

An insider close to State House in Banjul has revealed to this reporter that the actual reason behind the fleeing of Kemo Cham, the former editor in chief of the Daily Observer, the pro-government newspaper, is tied to a report he purportedly wrote, implicating Momodou Sanyang, Director General of GRTS, Pa Malick Faye, current MD of the Observer Company and Dr Saja Taal, former  MD of the Observer Company.

 The alleged report which is said to have been handed over to the NIA, was discovered on Editor Cham after been subjected to close surveillance by the ever jittery Observer management, on the orders of Momodou Sanyang who has been battling with the sacked Gambian ambassador to the US, Neneh Macdoull-Gaye, over who has a say on the leadership of the paper. While Momodou Sanyang favoured Pa Malick Faye as Observer MD, Neneh Macdoull-Gaye had wanted to make Cham as MD, sources said.

The report, accordingly, also shed light on the ownership of the Observer as it indicates clearly that all the orders for the operation of the paper actually come from State House.

Cham’s luck ran out when a particular senior reporter,  whom he trusted so much, who unfortunately had been working under cover for the new MD, spied on him and discovered the write up in a flash drive he had borrowed him. The said reporter is reported to have informed Kojo Thompson, a long time rival of Cham for the position of editor in chief, who had formed a loose alliance with Pa Malcik Faye against a common foe. Kojo reportedly stealthily secured the flash drive from an unsuspecting Cham who was later on invited to an urgently convened meeting in the office of MD on the matter. At that meeting, Pa Malick is reported to have vowed to take the issue up with Momodou Sanyang.

According to sources, if he is lucky, Cham faces arrest and possible trial for what the authorities here are treating as false information charges, otherwise the former Daily Observer editor–in-chief could go through the path of the disappeared journalist whose plight he had been highlighting as The Gambia Government is certainly not in a position to go through the embarrassment of true revelations regarding a matter they have so consistently denied involvement in.

Given Momodou Sanyang’s relationship with President Jammeh, the GRTS DG’s implication in the disappearance of the former Daily Observer editor, Chief Ebrima Manneh, leaves the Gambian leader’s denial of knowledge on the matter questionable. And that makes the matter even worse for the former editor-in-chief. Although no one seems to have heard from him since he fled on the 11 of August, 2009, Cham is believed to have joined the growing number of Gambian journalists in Dakar in neighbouring Senegal, seeking refugee status in some Western country.