ALAGI YORRO JALLOW FED DAILY OBSERVER INFORMATION ON MAI FATTY’S QUESTIONABLE LAW DEGREE, THEN PUBLICLY DEFENDED HIM

ALAGI YORRO JALLOW-GATE: Private Messenger exchanges reveal how the former Daily Observer contributor supplied information about Mai Fatty’s academic background, claimed he was expelled from Fourah Bay College and encouraged the newspaper to investigate him. Jallow also claimed that senior members of the Gambian Bar and Bench intervened when questions arose over Fatty’s legal qualifications. Yet publicly, Jallow defended Fatty and other prominent Gambians whose credentials and activities had come under the newspaper’s scrutiny.

By Daily Observer News Desk

The Daily Observer continues its serialised publication of previously confidential editorial correspondence involving its former contributor, Alagi Yorro Jallow, whose private Messenger exchanges have become the subject of an ongoing investigation into his dealings with the newspaper and several prominent Gambian public figures. Today’s instalment turns to Mai Ahmad Fatty, the politician and ‘lawyer’ whose academic qualifications were previously examined by this newspaper. The latest disclosures concern Jallow’s role in secretly supplying information for that investigation, his claims about an alleged attempt to remove Fatty from the Gambian legal profession and his subsequent public defence of the politician.

Readers will recall the Daily Observer’s earlier investigative report questioning whether Fatty possesses a valid law degree. What readers were not told at the time was that Jallow himself supplied information that helped fuel the investigation.

In one Messenger exchange, Jallow provided information concerning Fatty’s alleged expulsion from Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone and named individuals he claimed had attempted to intervene in the matter.

Jallow wrote:

“Great, and his encounter with Justice Joko Smith, a justice and professor at Fouray Bay College who expelled Mai Fatty, and how Ousainou Darboe and Shiekh Tijan Hydara, then Attorney General, tried to broker peace between Mai and Justice Joko Smith. Justice Smith was also among the justices who heard appeal cases.”

In that message, Jallow identified Justice Joko Smith as the person who allegedly expelled Fatty and claimed that prominent Gambian lawyer Ousainou Darboe and former Attorney General Sheikh Tijan Hydara had attempted to broker peace between the two.

Jallow went further, claiming that the Gambian judiciary had, at one point, considered taking steps to have Mai Fatty removed from the legal profession following questions about the authenticity of his law degree.

According to Jallow’s account, allegations that Fatty possessed a fake law degree had attracted the attention of members of the Gambian legal establishment, raising the possibility of disciplinary action against him.

Jallow claimed that Fatty was spared such action through the intervention of several influential senior members of the Gambian Bar and individuals serving on the Bench, who reportedly came to his rescue.

The former Daily Observer contributor’s account raises further questions about what allegedly transpired within the country’s legal establishment, particularly whether any formal proceedings were contemplated against Fatty and, if so, who intervened and on what grounds.

Responding to the information concerning Fatty’s academic background, the Daily Observer wrote:

“Wow, this additional insight alone can be developed into a full investigative article. Thanks, bro. Mai must be exposed.”

Jallow subsequently sent another message praising the newspaper’s editorial approach and encouraging its editors to pursue investigations involving Fatty and others.

He wrote:

“Bro, I’d love to see your signature analytical style with those rhetorically powerful articles that draw people in. You’ve built a legacy of strong analytical and intellectual approaches that stand the test of time. Tackling cases like Mai and others would attract readers from all walks of life and shine a light on the mediocrity in web publishing.”

The message shows that Jallow was not merely passing information to the newspaper. He was actively encouraging its editors to investigate Fatty and other individuals.

He praised the Daily Observer’s analytical journalism, described its articles as rhetorically powerful and acknowledged what he considered the newspaper’s established intellectual reputation.

More significantly, he specifically identified investigations involving Mai Fatty as the kind of reporting that could attract readers and distinguish the Daily Observer from competing online publications.

The correspondence contrasts with Jallow’s public defence of Fatty and other prominent Gambians whose credentials and activities had attracted the newspaper’s attention.

Jallow publicly defended some of the same individuals whose activities he had privately encouraged the newspaper to investigate.

The newspaper’s Messenger records establish that Jallow supplied information about Fatty’s academic background, identified individuals allegedly familiar with his educational history and encouraged further investigative reporting.

His subsequent public defence of Fatty raises questions about the apparent difference between his private communications with the newspaper and his public position.

The Daily Observer did not invent his reference to Justice Joko Smith, his account of the alleged expulsion or his claims concerning the involvement of Darboe and Hydara.

Those statements came from Jallow himself.

Similarly, his praise for the newspaper’s investigative journalism and his encouragement to pursue cases involving Fatty are documented in his own correspondence.

The Daily Observer considers these exchanges relevant to understanding Jallow’s involvement in its previous investigations and the circumstances surrounding his subsequent public positions.

The Daily Observer’s continuing publication of the Alagi Yorro Jallow-Gate correspondence will examine further exchanges involving prominent Gambian personalities, including individuals whom Jallow privately discussed with the newspaper while maintaining different relationships with them in public. Stay tuned. The Daily Observer Gambia is here to stay.

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