By Baba Sillah
Fadia Mazegi, the managing director of Euro Africa Group and the business partner of Muhammad Bazzi, has dismissed the Janneh Commission’s categorization of him as a close associate of former President Yahya Jammeh.
“I have zero relationship with the office of the president unless if you ask Mr Bazzi. I have never met Jammeh in person except at functions and I was surprised when I was categorised as a close associate of Jammeh. Really this affects my business and the relationship between me and my family,” he refuted.
Testifying before the commission, Mezegi confirmed the supply of used-generators to the national power energy company, Nawec as part of the agreement between the Global Trading Group and Nawec.
Mazegi further explained that after the purchase of the said generators, they bought all the spare parts and other components from Europe which they supplied to Nawec.
However, he said he has no documents to ascertain the price of the generators but claimed that the total cost of their investment was $US40 million but the Commission Counsel, Amie Bensouda asked him to provide the basis of his calculation for the cost of their investment.
Mazegi denied any knowledge of pressure on Nawec for the signing of the said contract it entered with GTG, claiming that the capacity charge was to cover their investment and not to make profit.
According to him, Nawec had also breached some of the clauses in the contract arguing that they were also under threat by the executive at the time so closing or stopping the supply [fuel and spare parts] was not an option at the time.
He explained: “We were never part of the management of Nawec; it was only when the task force was set up to give technical support to them and despite that the said task force never managed Nawec. The free delivery and free storage facility given to Nawec was more than the value of what was agreed.”
