Police are presently holding Justice Darboe of The Voice on charges of false broadcasting and publication. The imprisonment stems from an article he wrote for The Voice this week, which claimed that President Barrow intended to train Muhammad Jah of QCell to run as the NPP’s presidential candidate in 2026 rather than run for office again.

President Barrow was not pleased with this and had his attorney write to The Voice requesting that they withdraw their story within 24 hours, issue an apology, and provide him damages. This occurred on Wednesday, but Musa Sheriff, the owner of The Voice, and Justice Darboe, a reporter for The Voice and the author of the piece, were summoned by the police for questioning on Thursday. After several hours of questioning, Justice Darboe was taken into custody and Musa Sheriff was set free.

For the sake of readers, presidential advisor Dou Sanneh did force The Voice to print a reply in which he angrily denied that President Barrow had any plans to abdicate in favor of Muhammad Jah.

In his 2016 manifesto, President Barrow pledged to remove the criminal law’s provisions on false publication and broadcasting. Included were the laws decriminalizing libel and prohibiting sedition. He is currently enforcing the same law that he previously argued was oppressive.