By Tabora Bojang
A member of the parliamentary enquiry committee on the sale of former president Jammeh’s’ frozen assets, Hon Alagie Mbow on Friday described the record of the sales provided by the Ministry of Justice as a “sham, adding that the record is incorrect and misleading.”
Mbow made these remarks following the testimony of former Sheriff of the High Court Sheriff B Tabally who admitted a litany of omissions in the handling the sales by the Sheriff Division.
In May, under pressure from the GALA protesters, the MOJ released several documents indicating that a total of 725 cattle were sold at various farms belonging to the former president, generating a sum of D8.3M, without supplying the names of the buyers, the total stock sold and the sale price attributed to each transaction.
The MOJ said it has asked the Sheriff Division to supply those details in a report.
This report was submitted to the parliamentary committee with Mbow asking former Sheriff Mr Tabally who is now a High Court judge to explain the reasons for the wide discrepancies in the record.
According to Mbow, the record shows that one Cherno Jallow is said to have bought 73 bulls at a unit cost of D320 but a similar amount (D320) is recorded as the total, which he said, does not make sense at all.
Mbow also noticed another discrepancy showing that one Musa Sowe bought 94 cattle each for D13,000 but the records showed a total of D1.5million, instead of D1.2 million.
“Sowe bought another 11 cattle for a total of D10, 000, meaning he paid D909 for each cow, ” Mbow lamented, adding that another buyer, Muhammed Dem, bought one cow for D12,000, while one Ida Njie bought a cow for D2000, as well as one Baboucarr Njie who bought 3 calves for a total of D8000, meaning D2666 per cow.
He asked justice Tabally to explain what was the rationale for selling the cattle at these inconsistent prices.
Tabally replied that he did not know the value of the cattle and was instead relying on the advice of Amadou Kora and Mr Alieu Jallow.
Asked who contacted Mr Kora, Tabally said at first he thought Mr Kora was representing GLMA but he later learned that he was on the ground at the invitation of the Ministry of Justice.
“But recently I learned that he was only a volunteer,” Tabally said.
Asked how Mr Kora knew about the sale of the cattle, Tabally said he does not know because he was not on the ground on the first day. “I was not there on the first day but when I found him [Kora] on the ground it was an error on my part that I did not ask him,” Justice Tabally stated.
“These records from the Ministry of Justice are sham records. By all means it is not mathematically correct. They are all sham. Even when you try to deduce some intelligence from it you can’t because they are all wrong. But what baffles me is that all four of you from the Sheriff’s Office including yourself signed this document stating that it is correct. So all of you took a look at this record and claim it to be correct when in fact it is a sham. How can that happen?” Mbow queried. Justice Tabally replied: “I consider that was an error on our part for not verifying these records before signing.”
