By Dr. Muhammed B. Jaiteh and Dr. Ebrima S. Njie

We have keenly read the above article that you published on your website on August 27, 2021. While we acknowledge your efforts to establish accountability, we also see it necessary to address certain claims that the said article made reference to concerning our person.

In the report, one Isatou Jobe –the First Secretary at the Gambian Embassy in Turkey—claimed that Dr. Muhammed Jaiteh and some other Gambians demanded commission as part of transactions in the buildup to the deal. It further brought Dr. Ebrima S. Njie under the spotlight by referencing him in the article regarding reception of commission payments.

The accusation that Dr. Jaiteh, Dr. Njie and some other Gambians could have received commission payment is baseless and unfounded and we deny it in the strongest possible term. We condemn Isatou Jobe for this ill-intended finger-pointing and ask her to urgently clarify her claims. On this note, we wish to make the following comments as clarification and response to your article.

Dr. Jaiteh was part of a visit by Emsey Hospital in Turkey to the Ministry of Health in December of 2019 where the former expressed interest in establishing bilateral relations with the latter in terms of health care provision and capacity building of local Gambian medical professionals. The visit culminated in the signing of an MoU between the two parties. This was how Dr. Jaiteh first came to meet officials of the Ministry.

We were also involved in introducing the Ostim Medical Cluster to the Gambian Embassy in Ankara and when the Minister of Health and his delegation visited Turkey in February of 2020, a meeting was arranged by the Gambian Embassy with the Medical Cluster, as confirmed by the Ministry.

Dr. Jaiteh is a practising medical doctor in Turkey and Dr. Njie has also spent many years in the country doing his Masters and PhD studies at Turkish universities. Consequently, it is natural that we would come in contact with individuals and entities that may be of interest to the Gambia either through the services they offer or products they have at their disposal.

It is on this basis that we were introduced to the Ostim Industrial Cluster who specialize in manufacturing medical items and we deemed it necessary to introduce the group to the Gambian Embassy in Turkey.

However, we have not met any official from the TMS, the company that reportedly sold the Ambulances to the Gambian Health Ministry. Regarding the transaction itself, neither Dr. Jaiteh, nor Dr. Njie was preview to the circumstances and results of the ensuing contact between the Gambian Embassy in Ankara, the Ministry of Health and the Ostim group.

Moreover, none of us was involved in any contact or meeting that subsequently took place between the parties regarding the procurement of the said ambulances. Mrs. Isatou Jobe and the officials at the Ministry of Health can attest to this.

As a result, implying that any of us could have received commission payment from the transactions is, at best, a malicious attack on our person and a mischaracterization of facts, to say the least. We will not accept our names to be used as scapegoats by anyone trying to clear their own names.