A British philanthropist, Dee Symons, has accused Rev Titus K A Pratt, chairman and superintendent of the Gambia Methodist Mission of embezzlement, unfaithfulness and greed.

Mrs Symons said all the assistance and donations she had been sending from England for the development of the Methodist Mission in The Gambia had instead been personally used to "develop Rev Pratt". She said all the money, medical items and clothing she had sent through Rev Pratt for use in clinics, for the needy people and the Methodist Mission had never served the purpose they were sent for.

She said she regretted working with the Methodist Mission for the past years "whose chairman claimed to be a religious and pious person, but was instead using church money for his personal benefit .

Mrs Symons explained that Rev Pratt wrote to her many times asking her to send money for the Mission in order to complete projects and buy medical items for Marakisa clinic. "When the money arrived, Rev Pratt sat on it but told me that it had been put to good use." She revealed that 3 years back, she collected some goods from donors in England, including computers, medical items, blankets, clothing and toys for patients at Brikama and Marakissa clinics as well as for the Mission and the needy. Mrs Symons alleged that Rev Pratt diverted the container with the computers to Ghana while the toys and clothing were sold at the Brikama market.

Mrs Symons said when she found some of the materials being sold at the market, she asked Rev Pratt, who then claimed that the clinic staff decided to sell them inorder to buy medicament. "My own dress which I bought for 60 pounds was seen at Brikama market on sale for 35 dalasis," she alleged.

She also claimed to have given 12,000 Pounds Sterling to Rev Pratt for the restoration of the Church and Chapel in Janjanbureh but only found out that the money was never used for the purpose because there was nothing new in the church. "The church was disgraceful to accommodate even a rat, for the huge amount of money spent," she reasoned.

When our reporter contacted Rev Pratt at his office in Banjul, he refuted the allegations, noting that Dee Symons was a volunteer at Marakisa clinic and had neither sent money or goods through him nor for the mission or the clinic.

He acknowledged receiving money from Mrs Symons in England but said that was less than D2000 and was meant to buy medicines for the Marakisa clinic.

Pratt, a Ghanaian national, explained that the mission even added some money to that amount because it was not enough to buy the medicines .

He also refuted allegations of receiving any computers or medical items from Symons which he reportedly diverted to his country, Ghana, for some other purposes.

Pratt said another philanthropic group from England were the sponsors of the Janjanbureh project, alleging that Mrs Symons had no part to play in that.

Rev Pratt also alleged that Mrs Symons was being instigated by some people "fighting for his position".