Minister Hamat Bah has refuted claims that he bought cattle belonging to former president Yahya Jammeh.
Earlier this week, the new investigative journal The Republic, published a report on how the cattle, numbering about 700, was disposed off. For years, there have been speculations that Minister Bah who takes pride in his cattle herding ancestry, purchased a significant number of the cattle at unjustifiably discounted prices.
In response to The Republic’s query, Minister Bah clarified that he has not bought a cow or anything else belonging to the former president. He stated: “I deliberately refused to buy anything from Yahya Jammeh’s properties because I don’t want anything from Jammeh…No one in this world will provide you with any evidence of my purchase of any of Yahya Jammeh’s properties. I am making it abundantly clear that I did not buy anything from Yahya Jammeh’s assets.”
Almameh Gibba, the parliamentarian representing the former president’s native constituency of Fôni Kansala has asked the attorney general to provide a comprehensive detail of Jammeh’s assets including the cattle disposed off, the buyers and the costs.
AG Dawda Jallow said the cattle were sold by the sheriff of the high court. The current sheriff told The Republicthat the report on the sale of the 725 cattle for D8.3 million did not indicate the names of the buyers.
The sheriff who conducted the sale, now a high court judge, declined to speak to The Republic.
