Leading journalist and publisher of Freedom Newspaper, Pa Nderry Mbaye has disclosed the lead counsel at the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), Essa Faal was among the lawyers who drafted some of former President Jammeh's bad laws.  

The outspoken journalist said: "Faal was a lone guy working in the drafting office, drafting laws, according to what he told Harona Drammeh, in an interview dated October 8th, 2019. He stayed there until the post-military rule transition period." 

According to him, the lead counsel worked at the AG Chambers after the military coup that ended Sir Dawda Jawara's three-decade-old rule.  

"He stayed at the AG Chambers until 1997. At the end of 1997, Faal was appointed as first secretary and later counselor for legal affairs at The Gambia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations (UN), based in New York, United States," said Pa Nderry. 

He added: "Shockingly, poor Gambia never knew that he was among the junta’s drafters. He was working with the Ghanaian legal experts to help draft that tailor-made constitution called the 1997 constitution. His fingerprints are on that constitution. 

"Given his past association with Jammeh’s repressive regime, the million-dollar question is: Is Essa Faal not a conflicted Lead Counsel?" 

Pa Nderry is widely believed to be the first journalist who exposed the human rights violations in the past government. He contributed significantly to the struggle that ended Jammeh's rule.