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The former Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh, left the shores of the country on 21 January 2017 after a shocking election defeat to President Adama Barrow. Now exiled in Equatorial Guinea, Jammeh annulled the results claiming widespread electoral malpractices, an action which prompted regional leaders to send in thousands of forces to install Barrow. Barely a year after his departure on a self-imposed exile to the Central African country, his home village of Kanilai became the centre of a public auction of his livestock.
On 9 January 2018, a crowd of intended buyers trooped to the orchard of the former leader in Kanilai, a settlement once an impenetrable fortress in the heart of Foni that housed hundreds of people and hosted uncountable high-profile events during Jammeh’s 22-year rule.
During the sales, which took place three times with the last one happening on 31 January 2018, the Sheriff of the High Court of The Gambia sold 724 heads of cattle for a little over D8.3 million, a figure significantly less than the expected value.
Barely five months into Jammeh’s exile, the new government launched an investigation into the ex-president’s financial activities and those of his close associates, which preceded a May 2017 high court order freezing all his assets.
However, on 3 January 2018, the late Hon. Justice Buba Jawo of the High Court granted a motion for the sale of the livestock. The motion was sought by the Attorney General’s Chambers and Ministry of Justice through an affidavit sworn to by Alieu Jallow, former acting Registrar General at the Ministry of Justice.
In the motion, Jallow claimed the livestock were at risk of getting stolen because the number had significantly gone down to less than 600 from the initial 800 heads of cattle at Jammeh’s three ranches in Kanilai, Farato and Banjulinding.
Justice Jawo accepted the motion and ordered that the Gambia Livestock Management Agency assist the Sheriff Division in the valuation of the livestock
The Janneh Commission had earlier ordered that the livestock be handed over to GLMA until a motion was sought in court. However, evidence indicates that none of the orders was honored. The Gambia Livestock Management Agency told The Republic that Jammeh’s animals were never handed to their care and they never did the valuation for the Sheriff’s Division, violating a court order.
On 26 March 2018, the Sheriff’s Division finalised its report on the sales of 725 heads of cattle amounting to D8, 302,000. Though there is no indication the Sheriff Division did any independent valuation as ordered by the Court, the Janneh Commission did. The Republic investigations in March 2024 revealed that the livestock were sold at least D2.4 million below the valuation done by the Commission.
How Sheriff conducts public auctions
The sale of an asset or property by the Sheriff of the High Court arises in two instances, according to the Sheriff’s and Civil Process Act and the Rules of the High Court. The first instance is when a person (plaintiff) obtains judgment (final order) against another (defendant), the judge or the magistrate gives a legal authority to collect debt through sale of debtor’s assets. The second instance is when an interim order has been made by a court for the Sheriff to sell an asset or property pending the conclusion of a case.
After a court orders for the Sheriff to dispose of an asset, the Sheriff commissions a valuation of the asset to ensure the item is sold at the market price.
Upon completion of the valuation, which is normally conducted by an independent and qualified valuer, the Sheriff will give at least 7 days’ public notice of the sale including advertisement sale of the items in a national newspaper. The newspaper advertisement specifies the item(s) to be sold; invites members of the public to an auction; and indicates the place and time for the public auction.
In the case of the sale of Jammeh’s livestock, Sheriff was asked to hire a valuer in consultation with the Gambia Livestock Marketing Agency. However, that did not happen, nor did the Sheriff hire a professional valuer. We requested for a copy of the valuation report done by the Sheriff prior to the sale of the livestock but the office told us they are not in possession of any.
“Pricing should not be done at the auction. The valuation report should guide the prices. After the auction, there would be a sales return which would indicate how many cattle were sold and at what prices.
The Sheriff should have a total control of the process; no other person should have a direct involvement in the action. Alieu Jallow was only a pointer, nothing else. His job was to show/point to the Sheriff which animals were to be auctioned,” a source familiar with the process told The Republic.
Amadou Corra “sets the price”
On 30 April 2025, The Republic published its exposè on the sales of the Jammeh assets. The investigations caused a public outrage and the youths took to the streets demanding full accountability. Under pressure, the Gambia government promised to release the full list of the assets sold and the buyers.
On May 9, the Ministry of Justice wrote to the Sheriff’s Division demanding “detailed information on the number of cattle sold, the amount paid for each cattle as well as the names of the buyers.”
In their response on May 13, the Sheriff’s Division led by former magistrate Omar Jabang said the sales were conducted jointly with the ministry itself and the State Intelligence Services as well as military officers who were farm managers. However, the Sheriff could not provide the detailed information the government was seeking.
Though the Sheriff failed to provide the names of the buyers, they revealed—for the first time—who did the pricing of the cattle. “It is also important to note that your office through one Alieu Jallow came with one Amadou Corra who was doing the pricing of the cattle,” said the Sheriff in a letter to the justice minister Jallow. Prior to this letter, The Republic has learned that the Justice Minister met Alieu Jallow and Sheriff Tabally on May 12, 2025 at his office to discuss documents including the names of the buyers but they could not provide any other than the sales report first published by The Republic in March 2024.
Corra claimed he was never hired to set the prices and that he only went to the sales to buy. “[Alieu] Jallow pegged a cow at 5K but I told him that’s a bad price. He asked me what the price should be, I told him it should be 10k,” he told one of Gambia’s leading online platforms Kerr Fatou.
“That’s how it continued. He would look at the next cow and ask my opinion on the pricing, then he would write on a piece of paper which would be handed to the intended buyer if the person agreed.”
How Corra reportedly became ‘price-setter’
A source who was present in Kanilai and another very close to the Gambian leader Barrow told The Republic Corra was involved in the sale of livestock which took place in Jammeh’s home village.
Corra said he heard about the sales and decided to go there to buy though he confirmed he ended up not buying. “I didn’t buy any cow or receive any money from the sales in Kanilai,” he said.
President Barrow is a former member of the opposition United Democratic Party, a party he once served as treasurer. Though he fell out with the party in 2019, their relationship was very cordial prior to the split. Corra, a founder member of the party, is an influential person in their grassroots mobilisation.
A politician who was close to both the President and Corra then told The Republic he was instructed to be part of the sales by Barrow so that he [Corra] “could make some money too”. Corra denied these claims.
“When I was going to Kanilai, I had even met Barrow before. He was not even aware of it and he didn’t ask me to do it,” he said. “The government or the president didn’t give me any piece of paper assigning me.”
We reached out to Amie Bojang-Sissoho, the director of press and public relations at the Office of the President via email about the allegations. Her response was both terse and confusing. “Kindly direct your request to the Commission on Access to Information (ATI) on this matter,” she responded.
She did not reply to our follow-up email which clarified that we were not requesting information through the ATI law but rather giving the President a right of reply.
No trace of other animals
The exact number of livestock or wild animals the ex–president had in Kanilai is hard to establish. However, a former strong supporter and now a counsellor at The Gambia’s High Commission in South Africa, Ousman Jatta nicknamed Rambo, claims Jammeh had more than 18,000 heads of cattle at the time of his exile to Equatorial Guinea in 2017.
In January 2018, a team comprising the Janneh Commission, Ministry of Justice, Gambia Livestock Management Agency and State Intelligence Services, visited the former president’s ranches. The team identified 634 heads of cattle valued at D10.7 million, according to the Commission’s report seen by The Republic. The Sheriff eventually sold 725 heads of cattle—at least ninety heads of cattle more than number valued—and declared D8.3 million, at least 2.4m less than the total valuation price reached by the Commission.
During the visit, the team also found several other animals at the Kanilai ranch, including zebras, hyenas, horses, goats and sheep. However, there is no record of what happened to those animals. Jatta also claimed there were 150 camels.
On 17 October 2017, Alieu Jallow, who was acting Registrar General at the Ministry of Justice, submitted a report to the Janneh Commission on the status of moveable and immoveable properties of the former president. In the report, Alieu claimed that 400 heads of cattle were slaughtered by one Major Gibril Jammeh, who was caretaker of Jammeh’s livestock “for unknown purposes.”
On July 5, 2017, the Ministry of Justice wrote a letter to the Defense Headquarters of the Gambia Armed Forces for the army to probe into the incident. The letter was signed by Alieu Jallow.
“I have been directed to inform your good office and request you to conduct an investigation into these alleged activities for possible action,” said a letter to the Defense Headquarters.
Gibril has since ‘fled to the Casamance region in southern Senegal’. Military sources told The Republic that the army did not conduct any investigation into Major Gibril Jammeh’s alleged mass slaughter of the former president’s cattle a few months after his departure.
In addition to the 400 “slaughtered” heads of cattle, the Sheriff also reported that some cattle went for grazing and were not accounted for. The Sheriff did not state how many were not accounted for and their whereabout.
The Republic made efforts to speak to the two key individuals who could shed light on the subject—former Sheriff now a high court justice Hon Sheriff Tabally and Alieu Jallow—but they have been unreachable.
