It is unfortunate that the Gambia Government has to wait for five odd days after the Republic’s publication before the Ministry of Justice could issue a statement. A review of the statement indicates not only its emptiness but also more disgustingly, its blatant attempt to distort, disinform and mislead citizens with the intention to cover up illegality and corruption. This press release exposes the attempt by the Government to change the narrative to cleanse itself.
This attempt to disinform and mislead was carried further today by Minister Ismaila Ceesay who kept harping that the Republic did not show any wrongdoing by the Government. Contrary to his disinformation campaign on Coffee Time this morning, the Republic’s report is a direct indictment of the Government for its illegal and wrongful handling of these assets. If the Government had done the lawful and ethical thing since the beginning, then today there will not have been any investigative report.
Thus, what we are now seeing is a damage control expedition by the Government to silence voices and weaken public concerns by spreading disinformation and diversions. In the first place this press statement was totally empty of substance when it just narrated a process in the second and third paragraphs. Then in the rest of the paragraphs, they went on to express the usual legal responsibility and commitment of any government as if that was news.
The most scandalous aspects of the statement are found in two parts at the bottom: first, the Government said an audit was conducted on the sale of the assets which would be submitted to the National Assembly. Second, it said a comprehensive report on the sales of the assets will be made available to the public “in due course”!
May we ask, why do they have to wait for five years after the fact to do an audit and a comprehensive report? And remember, it was this Government, from the President to Ministers and the Chief of Staff who had said that an audit report is a mere opinion. Why then point citizens to an audit report all of a sudden?
The Janneh Commission submitted its final report to Pres. Barrow in March 2019. By December 2020, almost all the assets were sold. Since then, the Government never found it necessary to conduct or release their so-called audit report or comprehensive report until when the Republic released its investigative story in April 2025. This is five years later. What does this mean?
It is clearly showing that this press release from the Ministry of Justice is nothing, but a piece of disinformation intended to mislead and silence citizens from demanding transparency and accountability. It is a piece of false information intended to cover up corruption and illegality that characterized the sale of these assets.
Evidently, it was the Government that set up the Janneh Commission. It was the Government that took custody of all these assets. It was the Government that appointed Augustus Prom and then Alpha Kapital as receivers. It was the Government that set up a ministerial committee and a technical working group. It was the Government that took decisions and actions to sell these assets. Hence there was documentation of decisions and actions and who took them. There are records of assets, and their sellers and buyers. Why cannot the Government just share that information right now?
Let’s bear in mind that the TRRC was set up to unearth the truth about the human rights violations perpetrated by the Jammeh regime. Similarly, the Janneh Commission was set up to unearth the corruption of the Jammeh regime. It is therefore scandalous that the people who were elected and appointed since 2017 to replace Jammeh to ensure justice and accountability for his violations and corruption as exposed by these two commissions would now come to perpetrate the same looting of the assets recovered from the dictator. Unforgivable. Otherwise, why are they struggling in telling citizens stories and counter stories when they should have just provided the necessary information five years ago?
Indeed, Jammeh is unquestionably a disgusting scum of the earth. But to imagine that after him, Gambians would bestow their trust on a new set of men and women who would come to further plunder Jammeh’s booty is the greatest shameless betrayal of the nation. What has happened to these assets shows a total disregard of the plight of citizens, especially the victims by this Government. Yet even when they are caught red-handed thanks to the Republic, the Government still tries to blatantly lie and mislead. This is indeed disgraceful.
For The Gambia Our Homeland
