(JollofNews)- A son of former Gambian leader, Sir Dawda Jawara, who is currently being tried for allegedly stealing more than D8 million (US$216,216.22) from the state has been re-arrested and detained.
Ebrima Jawara was picked-up yesterday morning by officers of the feared National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and is detained at the agency’s headquarters in Banjul.
The government is yet to comment on his latest arrest, but a government official has denied that he was arrested.
In an interview with Jollof News, the official who preferred anonymity said: “All what I can say is that Mr Jawara was not arrested. He was invited for questioning in relation to some new materials we have got. He is being questioned about it and he could be charged or release.”
Mr Jawara was once seen as a rising star in the Gambian regime. He was appointed by President Yahya Jammeh as director of the Central Coordinating Unit, acting project director for the NEMA Project, acting project director of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme and project director of the Gambia Commercial Agricultural and Value Chain Management Project, where he was also the accounting officer for the World Bank funded programme.
But in September this year, he was arrested with three other senior officials at the Agriculture Ministry and slapped with a ten count charge on economic crime, abuse of office and theft by taking.
It was alleged that the senior officials allocated themselves the amount of D8,432,720 without approval from the project steering committee.
Mr. Jawara, was separately accused of taking a loan of D300,000 from PIWAMP, an agricultural project that he diverted for his own personal use.
President Jammeh believes the project directors, most of which are funded by the World Bank and IFAD are holding the agricultural sector at ransom.
