Claim: Did the Standard newspaper misquote the Minister of Defense?
Source: Ministry of Defense
Verdict: False
Findings
On March 30, 2023, the Standard newspaper reported that the Defense Minister of the Gambia, while answering oral questions from the National Assembly of the Gambia, said, “Senegal to respect sovereignty.” The report goes on to say “The Minister of Defense, Sering Modou Njie, told lawmakers yesterday that the government has seriously engaged the Senegalese government about the need for them to respect Gambia’s sovereignty”. Following this report by the Standard, the Ministry of Defense released a press statement in which they claimed that the defense minister has been seriously misquoted on his remarks on Senegal.
What was Honorable Almameh Gibba’s question?
Asking a follow-up question to his first question to the Minister of Defense, the Honorable said, “As engagements are on-going with the Senegalese counterparts, drones and ships are landing in Foni; are you sure they are respecting the territorial integrity of the country called the Gambia?
What did the Minister say in his response?
Answering the question by the NAM for foni Kansala, the Minister of Defense said, “Let me make it very clear, any use of our national territory should be expressly with the approval of the government of The Gambia.” He went further to say, “This we have expressed with our counterparts, that is, the Senegalese side, and they must respect that our national land and air territory is our national sovereignty, and that they must respect.”
Was the Minister misquoted?
The Fact-Check Center verified the claim by the Ministry of Defense that the Minister was misquoted by the Standard Newspaper through a video on the National Assembly Facebook page (https://fb.watch/jHhaesR8qx/). Our findings show that the Minister has not been misquoted. The report in the standard newspaper said exactly what was said by the minister while he answered the question.
Also, in the press release issued by the Ministry, they did not indicate what part of the Minister’s statement in his response to the question was misquoted. If you read the second paragraph of the Ministry’s statement, the second-to-last sentence, where it is stated, “Any use of our National territory should be expressed with the approval of the government of The Gambia”. The Ministry did not complete this part of the response in the press release, but if you watch the video (https://fb.watch/jHhaesR8qx/. , the Minister goes on to say, “This we have expressed with our counterparts, that is, the Senegalese side, and they must respect that our National land and air territory are our National sovereignty and that they must respect,” which is the subject of the report published by the standard newspaper.
