By Tabora Bojang
Information Minister Dr Ismaila Ceesay has clarified comments he made on West Coast Radio that the government never received a formal report from the Janneh Commission containing a list of buyers of forfeited assets of former president Jammeh.
His comments left many Gambians to suggest that the list of vehicles, tractors, properties, scrapped materials and other assets released by the Ministry of Justice on May 9 was therefore misleading since nothing was presented to the government by the commission.
Speaking at Coffee Time on West Coast radio Tuesday morning the minister said:“The Janneh Commission only submitted a comprehensive report to the government but no report on sales. What the government had was the sales of the properties done by the auctioneer Alpha Kapital. When it comes to the tractors, cattle and vehicles, nothing was submitted to the government. And still they haven’t.”
The minister further said on the radio that the list released by the Ministry of Justice came from people who took part in the sales of the assets only when the issue blew up following The Republic’s investigative report. “So the government cannot give what it does not have because there was no report submitted on the sale conducted by the Janneh Commission to the government,” Minister Ceesay said.
Relying on this revelation by the minister, protest group Gambians Against Looted Assets (GALA), issued a statement yesterday expressing its total rejection of the list produced by the government.
According to GALA, what Dr Ceesay revealed on Coffee Time on Tuesday May 20, effectively means the list published to the public by the state was misleading.
“He has confirmed that the commission only presented a comprehensive report but the report never contained any list of buyers and sellers of the forfeited assets. Going by this revelation, we condemn the government for misleading the Gambian people and equally, we totally reject the list that was published on May 11. We call on the government to publish the full list, the comprehensive report presented to the government and all other relevant documents of public interest. We will, in no time, demand the report and reject the list through every means necessary. We will, without hesitation, mobilise all Gambians, across all regions, to take to the streets to reject the misleading list.”, GALA said yesterday.
The Ministry of Justice had stated that the documents it published include “a list of vehicles, tractors, scrapped materials and other items sold by the Janneh Commission.
Contacted yesterday for clarifications, Information Minister Ceesay told The Standard that his comments were misunderstood. “What I said on the radio on Tuesday was that the commission has not submitted a detailed or comprehensive report of sales they conducted. But that does not mean nothing exists. There were people who conducted the sales and they have the list at the Ministry of Justice, that is where we got it from but we did not get it formally from the Janneh Commission itself. So the Janneh Commission has not submitted any report to the president to say what assets were sold, how it was sold and so on. That does not mean there was no list because sales were done and we got the list from those people who conducted the sales on behalf of the Janneh Commision. And when we say a report it does not mean only the list of names of who bought it. It also involves the processes used in selling the assets. You can have the list but not necessarily get it from the Janneh Commission as an entity,” Dr Ceesay said.
