By Sainey Darboe:
A senior staffer at The Gambia government’s ministry of Foreign Affairs, Melville Roberts, has pushed back against allegations of rape against him noting that his accusers are coming out because they “wanted money” from him and asked “to be in a relationship” with him.
Melville has been trending on Facebook with allegations of rape and sexual harassment by multiple women. Over the weekend, two women Chaat Joyce and Kadija Bokum took to Facebook to level allegations of rape and harassment against Melville Roberts.
Speaking in an interview with The Fatu Network, Melville revealed the women making allegations against him had relationships with him and were motivated to cause harm to his reputation “because things went bad”.
He added: “All these girls are talking because they wanted to have a relationship with me and I refused.They kept calling me and asking me for money and mobile phones, and I have text messages to that effect”.
Despite the intensifying campaign for his ouster from his job at the ministry of Foreign Affairs with an increasing number of accusers, Melville has a more pedestrian view of the whole snafu. “Everything happens for a reason. I don’t know who is behind this and what they are trying to do.I don’t know what’s their goal. But I have to defend myself,” added Melville.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , Saikou Ceesay, told journalists the ministry is seeking advice on how best to deal with the allegations.
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