By Tabora Bojang
The parliamentary committee investigating the sale of former president Jammeh’s frozen assets yesterday confronted the controller of government vehicles Famara Saidybah over the case of a Mitsubishi Pajero listed in the name of one Njaga of Majum Estate.
Njaja is believed to be a relative of President Barrow while Majum Estate was founded by the president.
A member of the enquiry committee Hon Omar Jatto Ceesay asked Mr Saidybah to explain how the car, which was recovered from one Captain Birray Jammeh at the Brufut AU Villas is listed on Njaga and Majum Estate’s name.
In reply, Saidybah said the vehicle in question was allocated for use at the residence of President Adama Barrow at Yarambamba .
Saidybah further explained that Njaga’s name only appeared on the list for identification purposes but the vehicle was assigned to the president’s residence in Yarambamba.
“But what brought about Njaga and Majum Estate into this. What kind of identification is that?”, Hon Jammeh asked. Saidybah replied: “It is just to verify the address but the vehicle was assigned to the residence of the president at Yarambamba.”
But NAM Jammeh continued to say that he wondered why Njaga’s name and Majum Estate was written in the document instead of indicating that it was allocated for use at President Barrow’s residence.
“I am beginning to suspect that you guys distributed these vehicles amongst yourselves instead of committing them to government structures,” Hon Jammeh told the vehicle controller. But Saidybah maintained his position that Njaga and Majum Estate were put in the document for identification purposes only but it was meant for use at the president’s residence.
Vehicle controller bought car for D20K
The vehicle controller also confirmed that he himself bought one of the vehicles seized from Jammeh for D20,000. He said this was a Pick-Up car.
But with his name appearing several times in the list of buyers, the Janjangbureh lawmaker asked Mr Saidybah how come he confirmed buying only one car but his name is found in many places in the list. Saidybah replied that he is not the only Famara Saidybah in the country.
366 Jammeh vehicles counted
Mr Saidybah further informed the committee that following Jammeh’s departure, they conducted a count of his vehicles and had counted 366 vehicles including Rolls Royce cars and Limousines.
He said only 122 vehicles were found to be road worthy, while 120 were not road worthy and 124 were scrapped vehicles.
Saidybah explained that during these counting exercises, vehicles were seized from individuals, security officials, and institutions and some were immediately reassigned by the new coalition government to incoming officials. “Essentially, vehicles were literally taken from personnel of the old regime and handed to people that were incoming in the new regime,” he said.
When enquiry members found some discrepancies in the numbers provided by Mr Saidybah, the witness attributed this to duplications.
