By Tabora Bojang
Former registrar general Alieu Jallow yesterday told the parliamentary committee probing the sale of assets frozen from former president Jammeh that the 37 sheep found in Kanilai were not sold, and that the animals actually died.
During his previous testimony, Jallow had informed the inquiry that his team that visited Kanilai following Jammeh’s departure found 37 sheep at his farm.
However, since these sheep were not included in the sales report, Jallow was asked to explain what happened to them and he replied that he was informed by the farm manager, one Mr Sanyang, that all the sheep had died.
He said the farm manager did not provide him any written records but communicated through a message about the death of the sheep.
Cattle sale
The former registrar also disagreed with lawmakers’ criticisms that the record of the cattle sales by the Sheriff Division and Ministry of Justice was a sham, incorrect and misleading.
Jallow argued that out of the total 725 cattle sold, none was sold for less than D10,000 which related to the D8.3 million generated.
According to Jallow the discrepancy noticed in the record of sales may be owing to a mistake during the tabulation.
“I think the person may have plenty of cash and did not know how to categorise the cash in respect of the individual buyers and so he decided to fix it and may have missed the numbers in the process. So when I looked at the numbers, put everything together and divided it, I realised that no one cattle was sold for less than D10,000. So there was a mistake in the tabulation,” the former registrar said.
Amadou Kora
Mr Jallow also told the committee that he was assigned by the former Justice Minister to serve as an observer during the cattle sales in Kanilai, and it was there that he met Amadou Kora and introduced him to the Sheriff who was conducting the sale to help them do the valuation of prices.
At this point Counsel Kah put it to Jallow that he had overstepped his observer role by introducing Mr Kora to the Sheriff.
“I did not overstep my bounds and I came to know that Mr Kora was someone who knows a lot about cattle sales and as soon as he emerged on the ground everybody knew him and they started calling him everywhere and he was very helpful to us. Mr Kora is well known, and was involved in many livestock projects,” Jallow replied.
He said he never met Mr Kora prior to their meeting in Kanilai after which he did not see him until the recent noise on social media about his participation in the cattle sales
“I called him and met with him to assure him not to worry because he was not the one doing the sales,” Jallow said.
Asked why he felt the need to reassure Mr Kora who was not supposed to be part of the sale, Jallow replied: “Because he may worry. And I am a considerate person. If you assist me and I feel your name could be misrepresented, I will calm you down. That is my nature and I will not run from that responsibility. I told Mr Kora not to worry himself because he was not the one who conducted the sale. He came, assisted and left and was not paid. So people would not help me and I abandon them.”
