(JollofNews) – A temporal freeze on the assets of Gambia’s former ruler Yahya Jammeh was put in place by the government to ascertain whether they lawfully belong to him, the country’s Information has said.
Demba Ali Jawo said although the government has not seized Mr Jammeh’s assets in the Gambia, it is setting up an inquiry to establish the true ownership of the assets the has declared.
“The government is just launching an inquiry into his assets, until they can determine that the assets were lawfully acquired or not,” Mr Jawo told the independent Standard Newspaper.
“That was why the court order was sought to freeze them. If they were found to have been lawfully belonging to him, they will be returned.”
Mr Jammeh, 52, who governed the Gambia for 22 years, was booted out of power in January 2017 after a shock defeat in the presidential election by opposition candidate Adama Barrow.
As part of the deal and ‘in order to assist a peaceful and orderly transition and transfer of power and the establishment of a new government,’ Mr Jammeh agreed to temporarily leave the Gambia on 21 January 2017 for Equatorial Guinea with his wife and family with assurance that the regional group Ecowas, the African Union and the United Nation will work with the Government of the Gambia to prevent the seizure of assets and properties lawfully belonging to him or his family and those of his cabinet members, government officials and party supporters, as guaranteed under the Constitution and other laws of the Gambia.
But last month the Government of the Gambia obtained a court order to temporal freeze his 131 landed properties, 86 different bank accounts, 14 companies, organisations and livestock directly associated with him.
The government said the court order was aimed at preventing him from liquidating or dissipating his assets so as not to cause prejudice to the state should there be adverse findings made against him by a court which may require the recovery of assets and money from him.
“That section [in the deal brokered by Ecowas, the African Union and the United Nation] says assets lawfully belonging to the former president. So the government has not taken over his properties just yet. The injunction was meant to make it impossible for anyone to use them until it is confirmed that the president acquired them lawfully,” the Information ministered clarified.
Respecting the laws and agreements does not mean that we are in favor or against Jammeh as some think, some people want revenge but they forget that without agreements today mr Barow would be in Dakar so let’s respect the agreement and focus on the future
which agreement and with who ? it seems you lack political intelligence like Jammeh who has been lured to draft a paper of his wishlist. if Jammeh refused to go he would have been butchered like S K Doe or worst than Gaddafi
Ask Barrow what was signed ,, shame and ignorance you are , make sure before Jammeh would have killed thousands of innocent people and some like you would be scared dead running through other countries, those who deny that there were no agreements refuse because they are ignorant and cowards and liars, we what We want is Gambia no chairs like some people
I agree with my friends. I think this lot take one step forward two steps back/ This gives an impression they are playing with legal fire and don’t exactly know how to put it out.
we reached out to a senior U.N. official at the New York headquarters whose response is replicated below and it reads thus:
“The Joint U.N-A.U-ECOWAS declaration is political in nature and does not have any legal status.”
http://sidisanneh.blogspot.de/2017/06/joint-un-au-ecowas-declaration-is.html
——————————————————————————————————————
In spite of the fact that the document is still posted on the websites of the African Union and United Nations giving the document some official recognition – perhaps for its historic significance rather than its legal relevance and legitimacy – President-elect Barrow’s Special Adviser – Mai Ahmad Fatty – (now Interior Minister) did characterized it as a “hoax” in a Facebook entry last January and reconfirmed to me in my 5 AM phone call while both of us where in Dakar. An undefinitive search of the ECOWAS website did not show a display of the document. Mr. Fatty further referred me to Senegal’s Foreign Minister’s press briefing of the same day reaffirming the same i.e. that the document in question has no legal teeth and therefore unenforceable. He did not stop at that. Still in his capacity as Special Adviser to the president-elect, he issued another Facebook statement all but declare the Agreement null and void. “There was NO DEAL signed” (his emphasis) he declared.
http://sidisanneh.blogspot.de/2017/06/is-jammehs-exit-agreement-legally.html
If you invite the” white” elephant into your room, Make sure you have strong foundations.