After a 22-year rule of his poor, indebted country, Yahya Jammeh reluctantly went into self-imposed exile to Equatorial Guinea, following a shocking election defeat to Adama Barrow. A State investigation into his alleged financial wrongdoings found he had stolen at least $362m, lavishly spent on expensive vehicles, aircraft and real estate.
All his assets were forfeited to the State but the process of recovering his loot has been marred with alleged corruption, with officials of the current administration allegedly selling assets to friends, family and themselves at prices only a fraction of their worth. To the public, information about buyers of these assets, amounts at which they were sold, and the circumstances, is left much to speculation despite repeated questions by journalists, activists and lawmakers.
So far, only $23, 716, 725 was recovered from the sale of his 35 real estate holdings including a vehicle garage, livestock, 5 aircraft, 458 vehicles, 197 tractors, shares in four companies, dividend payments from three companies and valuable items found at his Dunes Resort and Casino.
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Pulling the rug under court’s feet
In 2018, a High Court Judge, Hon. Justice Mrs. Amina Saho-Ceesay (as she then was), froze some of the assets of former president Yahya Jammeh at the request of the Justice Ministry under ex-minister Abubacarr Tambadou. Justice Saho-Ceesay appointed Augustus Prom as the Receiver.
Without the knowledge of the Court, Tambadou reportedly sacked Prom and subsequently hired another firm, Alpha Kapital Advisory LP, tasking it to dispose of the assets of Yahya Jammeh. Alpha Kapital is a partnership owned by Alpha Amadou Barry and Abdoulie Barry which was registered on September 21, 2017— about two months into the investigation into the finances of the former dictator Jammeh. Alpha is a chartered accountant who, sources say, is a close friend of former justice minister Tambadou, a claim Tambadou denies. “Up until this point in time, I had never had any sort of relationship, personal or professional, with Mr Barry, let alone describe the relationship as an acquaintance,” said Tamabdou. Little is publicly available on Alpha’s partner Abdoulie.
The details as to how the firm was selected remain murky as the position was never advertised, nor was it approved by the Gambia Public Procurement Authority, according to the Agency. Tambadou said appointments in assets recovery processes are not usually “subjected to public advertisement”.
Alpha Kapital was hired in the second week of June 2019, three months after the Commission submitted its report to President Adama Barrow, and 1 year 10 months after the firm was registered. Tambadou said the firm was hired by the ministerial committee comprising himself, former tourism minister Hamat Bah and former lands minister Musa Drammeh.
In a letter to the Chief Justice on a range of issues, Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay protested that the sacking of a court-appointed Receiver using “administrative procedures” is “unknown to law”. “The fate of respondent’s (Yahya Jammeh) properties and companies is not known to the Court as no subsequent report was filed by the Trustee…,” said Justice Saho. “The case file, however, remains open.” Since then, the Ministry of Justice has not applied to Justice Saho-Ceesay for the closure of the file or for the discharge of the appointment of court-appointed receiver, Augustus Prom. Tambadou said Prom was never sacked. “Instead, his appointment as interim receiver was allowed to continue until its natural end together with the temporary freezing order granted by the high court,” said Tambadou.
Enter MOAB Capital
The relationship between Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay and the Tambadou-led justice ministry became sour in July 2018. The Ministry applied for a release of the plots of Jammeh’s land within the Tourism Development Area frozen by the High Court, but Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay refused the release order.
On June 14, about three weeks before the application, Tambadou wrote to the Janneh Commission in a letter that was copied to the former minister of tourism Hamat Bah, requesting for a ‘no objection’ for the release of the lands. Tambadou said the lands were to be used for development of facilities, including 6 five-star hotels and 5 four-star hotels with estimated 3,110 beds in preparation of both the tourism season and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit initially scheduled for November 2019.
Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay argued that the release of Jammeh’s landed properties for use by the State without any forfeiture order from the Commission would be a “travesty” of justice.
“For the government to descend upon the Respondent’s properties at this point in time, in the absence of the conclusion of the criminal investigation and a subsequent order of confiscation, will, with respect, amount to nothing short of a travesty,” said Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay in her ruling in July 2018.
When the High Court was on vacation, the Ministry of Justice filed the same application before a vacation judge, Hon. Justice Ebrima Jaiteh, who released the assets. A furious Justice Saho-Ceesay wrote to the Chief Justice protesting the Ministry’s action and the varying order issued by Hon. Justice Jaiteh.
On January 27, 2025, Justice Jaiteh confirmed to The Republic that the Ministry of Justice did not make a ‘full frank disclosure’ of facts before his court, which was an apparent “abuse of process”. “They should have filed an appeal against the court decision at the Court of Appeal and not file a fresh case before me. I was not aware of the judgement Amina made. It was an abuse of process,” said Hon. Justice Jaiteh. But former minister Tambadou said their application before Justice Jaiteh was a fresh one with additional details, adding that submitting “two separate applications before courts of similar jurisdiction” could not “be qualified automatically as an abuse of process”.
The collections of evidence filed before the parliamentary committee that in 2023 investigated land allocations made by Gambia Tourism Board show one of the parcels of land released by Hon. Justice Jaiteh was allocated to MOAB Capital Company, a business registered in January 2019 and owned by Binta Sompo Ceesay. The 6.10 hectares land, with lease number K355/2009, stretches from Djembe Beach to Palma Junction.
Binta was reported to be a friend of former minister Tambadou at the time of this process. Several sources told The Republic that she participated as a sales agent for the Alpha Kapital Advisory, the firm hired to dispose of the assets and shares of the ex–president Jammeh. Tambadou and Binta would marry in December 2022.
Tambadou said her relationship with Binta started in 2010 when he hired her as an agent to rent out his property in Bijilo. In mid 2019, he instructed her to sell their family’s property at the Fajara Golf Course. “By sheer coincidence, this private land sale transaction occurred around the time that the sale of Jammeh’s assets had commenced… it, most likely, must have given rise to the speculations that she was somehow involved in the Jammeh assets sale process whereas this was utterly untrue.”
Aside from the ‘flawed court process’ through which the ministry released the plot of land refused by Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay, a group of Gambia Tourism Board staff alleged in 2020 that the former tourism minister Hamat Bah interfered in the allocation of land to MOAB, which occurred despite the owner failing to pay the mandatory 5% levy of $50, 000. Bah denied the allegations. MOAB’s project was initially valued at $4m dollars which put her 5% levy to be paid to the Gambia Tourism Board at $200, 000, according to the GT Board staff who wrote the petition to the parliament. Tambadou was chair of the ministerial committee that oversaw the sale of Jammeh’s assets. The former tourism minister, now the local government minister— Hamat Bah— was a member of the ministerial committee.
Binta paid the levy in July 2020, about a year after she got the provisional allocation from the Gambia Tourism Board. The parliamentary inquiry also found that she was issued a sub lease in ‘violation of land allocation procedures’. As the parliamentary investigation was ongoing, over a year after MOAB’s provisional allocation was made, the ministry of communication lay claim to the land she was allocated. The Gambia Tourism Board then suggested another plot in Tanji as compensation, something Binta turned down in 2022. MOAB’s allocation was cancelled in January 2023 and refunded the $50, 000 levy paid, according to the Gambia Tourism Board. Our questions to Binta were not replied to until the time of this [publication.
“There is need for more investigation on the land issued to MOAB Capital Ltd and a lease was acquired by the investor before paying the 5% levy which was only paid after the petition was made,” concluded a parliamentary inquiry. “In essence, if the petition was not done, the Gambia Tourism Board may not have received the $200,000 (later reduced to $50, 000) development levy.” Three staff of the GT Board who were part of the petition to the parliament told The Republic that their former director Abdoulie Hydara reportedly told them to hasten the application process because Tambadou was the owner. We could not independently verify this. “I can confirm that the plot allocated to MOAB was not mine,” said Tambadou. “However, since I might have, on a few occasions, innocuously enquired about progress in the matter on her behalf, I will not rule out the possibility that this could have created the perception that I was an interested party.”
Alpha rakes in at least D89m
Media reports have indicated that Barry was working with a former banker, Binta Sompo Ceesay — now the wife of former minister Tambadou, to dispose of the assets. The firm makes 10% on all assets sold and 5% on all shares liquidated, according to its agreement with the Ministry of Justice. The Janneh Commission had earlier protested a similar 10% fee being taken by court-appointed Augustus Prom, demanding a reduction to 3%.
The revenue, after the deduction of Alpha’s share, was to be deposited into an account at the Central Bank. The state shoulders the operational cost. “All other charges for reasonable expenses including operational costs shall be deducted from monies generated from the transactions,” added the agreement.
The revenue reports show Alpha made at least D89, 217, 610 ($1, 438, 707 as of December 2022). A recent report released by the Ministry of Justice has shown that Alpha has reported D455, 829, 000 ($7 350 619 as of December 2022) as revenue generated from sales of assets. His agreement with the Ministry of Justice allows him to deduct his cut prior to depositing the money into a CBG account, which by The Republic’s calculation, amounts to D45, 582, 900.
The original amount generated from the disposal of the shares and dividends received totals D765, 317, 774 ($12, 341, 381 as of December 2022) and D107,376,431 ($1, 731, 533 in December 2022) with Alpha’s 5% cut accumulating to D38, 265, 889 and D5,368,822.
Under-declaration to tax authorities?
Alpha Barry is a Gambian chartered accountant. The records with the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) show his firm, the Alpha Kapital Advisory — registered on September 21, 2017 — was not active until after the sale of Jammeh’s assets as it only started paying tax from 2019 to 2022.
“As far as our records are concerned nothing was declared in 2017 and 2018 and nothing was paid in 2017 and 2018,” said our source at GRA.
The firm declared a total of D44, 379, 653 as its income in 2019 and 2020 to the Gambia Revenue Authority. In 2019, the firm declared D18,022,853 and paid D2,012,077 in taxes. It declared D26,356,800 in 2020 and paid D2,202,351 in taxes. It made no declaration in 2021 and 2022 but paid D1,000, 000 and D2,500,000 respectively.
This totals D7, 714, 428 in taxes to GRA from 2019 to 2022. The firm made no declaration in 2021 and 2022 but The Republic’s calculation of his shares in the sales shows he has made at least D89, 217, 610 from the sale of assets and shares.
According to the tax laws, the GRA charges the highest of either 1% of total earnings or 27% of profit. Without filing returns or audited accounts, which Alpha Kapital failed to do until February 2025 for the fiscal years 2021 and 2022, the tax office — according to a source who does not want to be named — is unable to properly calculate his tax liabilities.
“… If one fails to file a tax return, the person can only be assessed based on Best of Judgment which is an estimate assessment,” said a source at GRA. We contacted Alpha Barry for comment but he declined to comment, accusing The Republic of bias reporting. “You have already reached your conclusions. Go ahead and write what you want to write,” he said over the phone after he was asked if he had seen the email sent to him.
A Fajara property sold at a ‘giveaway price’
In June 2020, the former justice minister Abubacarr Tambadou appeared before lawmakers to update them on the sale of the assets of former president Yahya Jammeh. Tambadou submitted a report to the lawmakers which recorded the list of Jammeh’s properties and their buyers.
Baboucarr Sompo Ceesay bought back his property measuring 812.90 square metres at Fajara South Atlantic where experts say the value of property increases by at least 10% yearly. No amount was recorded nor was there any valuation amount in the document. According to an investigation by the Janneh Commission, this property was bought by Jammeh through the Kanilai Family Farm in 2008.
The property was mortgaged to the Arab Gambia Islamic Bank Limited in December 2004 by Baboucarr. “AGIB obtained a judgment for the sum of D8, 763, 254 against Baboucarr Sompo Ceesay and order for judicial sale of the property,” reported the Commission.
Sompo was recently appointed as commissioner into a regulatory body of Gambia’s state-owned enterprises. In the most recent report released by the Ministry of Justice, the price paid to buy back the property was D3.150m, only D150, 000 higher than the amount Jammeh paid 15 years earlier. A professional land valuator contacted by The Republic placed the land’s value in 2019 at D8.5m. The Fajara property made it into the report released by the Ministry of Justice in June 2023, about 2 years after Tambadou resigned. Babucarr claimed Jammeh forced the bank to sell the property to him though there was no evidence of this before the Commission. “All these properties Jammeh bought, they should have been given back to people for free,” he said, claiming a lot of those transactions were a sham.
The Republic’s investigation has found no records that this property was valued as instructed by the Janneh Commission. Sources at the Ministry of Justice said the property was jointly bought by Baboucarr and his ex-wife Binta Ceesay, who made an application to put the names of their 3 children in the deeds. In a letter to Alpha Barry in July 2020, Binta claimed to have made the payment for the property. In her letter, she protested that she was withdrawing from the transaction, and asked for a refund, after her former husband failed to comply with some undisclosed agreement they had. Her letter appeared to have been a response to a letter by Baboucarr to the Ministry of Justice in May 2020 asking for the property to be put in the names of the three children the couples had. However, Babucarr told The Republic on April 29, a day after our requests for comments were sent, that the property is in his name and not in his children’s. Ex– justice minister Tambadou said their ministerial committee allowed Babucarr to buy back his property for almost the same price on claims that “President Jammeh, with the complicity of the Sheriff’s Division of the High Court at the time, deliberately undervalued their properties with the specific objective of enabling President Jammeh to acquire same below the fair market value at the time”.
‘Needless transaction’ that only enriched the receiver
In the sale of Jammeh’s assets by at least 4 different state entities, none appears to have been done transparently, nor were significant details about the sales published. The Gambia Public Procurement Authority was not involved. The latest sale by Alpha Kapital was done through a closed bid. A closed bid allows buyers to make their offers for a price without knowing what others are offering.
At least 18 of the assets, the most expensive of which is D15m, were published on a website. There is no evidence of any other publication on the site.
Alhagie Mamadi Kurang — a chartered accountant — was a Secretary to the Commission who left after a disagreement with its leadership. “These assets should have been sold through open bidding. That would have fetched the state more money,” said Kurang.
But the criticisms against the sales were merely more than use of closed bids, which reportedly made the State lose money.
A good chunk of the assets and shares — including over a D100m spent on Futurelec by the Central Bank of the Gambia – were trading between the government or its agencies and itself. State corporations Social Security and Gambia National Petroleum Corporation have spent close to D300m procuring 17.2% of Muhammed Bazzi’s 31% shares from Gam Petroleum. Bazzi was a close associate of ex-president Jammeh whose assets were forfeited to the state after the Janneh Commission found him culpable for the dictator’s corrupt practices. All his assets including company shares were forfeited to the state.
Social Security procured 14.3% shares while Gambia National Petroleum Corporation procured 2.9% from Gam Petroleum. The Gambia Ports Authority, where Alpha Barry of Alpha Kapital served as a board chair until December 2019, also purchased a D1m property at Hagan in Banjul.
When contacted, the managing director of the GPA, Ousman Jobarteh, said the procured property was to be utilised in their Port expansion project.
“It is only the agent (Alpha Kapital) that gains from these sales. We have basically granted a transactional fee to someone for transferring ownership of state assets from one state institution to another,” argued Kurang. Tambadou sees it differently. “The act of simply transferring forfeited assets belonging to the state to these SOEs at zero cost would have been unlawful and would have meant the loss of income for the government,” he argued.
Opaque sale of vehicles
Gambia’s former dictator is a bundle of contradictions. While he created a public image as a pan-Africanist and strong critic of the West, his acquisitions showed he had an expensive taste for western products. In his 22–year rule, he procured customised luxury vehicles, such as Rolls Royces and limousines, with inscriptions of the names of his children, wife and himself on the back of the seats.
As the inquiry into his alleged financial wrongdoing progressed, the Commission put a large number of his vehicles for sale, a controversial decision that a high court justice Amina Ceesay Saho ruled in a different suit was a travesty of justice. Tambadou said the “Commission’s mandate was sufficiently broad enough to allow it to take measures to prevent further loss or damage to property while the inquiry was ongoing”. The Republic has requested for an inventory of the vehicles sold, quantity, valuation reports and the revenue generated from the sale. Though the Ministry of Justice promised to provide these details, the request has not yet been honoured.
Ex–president Jammeh left Gambia in a rush. Following his shocking election defeat, he claimed he did not lose to Barrow and annulled the results. With a history of eccentricity, the regional leaders knew any efforts to dissuade Jammeh would need a carrot and a stick. Thus, several thousand strong forces were deployed, gathering at the border with Senegal, as diplomats and former and sitting presidents talked him into handing over power to Barrow.
In that chaos, shortly after he left — as the chaos settled, his close associates took a quick inventory of his vehicles. The list, only a fraction of his total number of vehicles, includes a Chevrolet, limousine bus, VIP Mercedes Benz B5, Escalades, Bentley, five long limo Hummers, 2 long pickup Hummers and 2 short Hummers.
A document seen by The Republic shows the vehicles were under the control of the Office of the Vehicle Control Unit at the presidency. And the inventory taken by Jammeh’s associates shows the head of the unit — Nfamara Saidybah – had taken at least two vehicles from their parking spots. When contacted for information, the government vehicle controller Saidybah referred The Republic to the Commission’s report “to know the whole process of the sales of your findings.”
As the Commission investigated Jammeh, it made a decision to sell the vehicles, like much of his assets. After this sale, a report was drafted by one Fatou Drammeh. We made efforts to reach Fatou since February 2024 through a US number we believe to have been hers but could not get a reply. The report offered no details as to the buyers, inventory or number of vehicles sold, their brands and condition and other important details. The auctioneer’s report went on to claim: “… some vehicles that were identified and valued were missing at the time of the auction while some were still being used by officials from different government departments.” It did not mention which vehicles were missing, whose custody they were and how much they were worth.
The report added: “… Majority of vehicles that were identified and valued were found to have been tampered with and components were missing which has rendered them scrap…” No picture of the vehicles could be found in the report. The Janneh Commission’s report, Volume 1 and 2, did note that an inventory of the vehicles were taken and claimed this was attached in Appendix 1. However, this section was apparently removed prior to the report’s publication.
In March 2019, the former justice minister Tambadou told lawmakers that the Commission sold 458 vehicles. According to the report seen by The Republic, the sale — which included “other movables” that were not specified — generated D44, 288, 170 or $893, 510 in February 2019 — or an average of D96, 000 a vehicle. There was no clarity as to how much sales of “other movables” constituted.
The judge and the jury
In his 22–year rule, the Gambian dictator was many things: a miracle healer who cures AIDS with some herbal concoction and a pious Muslim crowned leader of the people of faith (nasirudeen). Top of the list of what he wanted to be known for was farming. This drove his ambition to have a tractor assembling plant in the country.
In 2005, he secured a $6.7m loan agreement from the Exim Bank of India to import and assemble 500 tractors. A large number of the imported tractors were distributed to farmers largely affiliated with his Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) party. The inquiry into his financial wrongdoing recovered over 200 tractors, 197 of which were sold.
Seven years later, the people are filled with questions about the number of tractors sold, conditions in which they are, names of buyers and amounts paid for each. From June to October 2018, the Janneh Commission auctioned 197 tractors in total, according to their scanty, yet unpublished, report which neither has the names of the buyers nor any details or pictures regarding the state of the tractors.
Before he fell out with the Commission, former secretary Alhaji Mamadi Kurang sold 43 tractors through an open bid and generated D10, 523, 000 (equivalent to $212, 547 in February 2019). Barely 3 months after Kurang was sacked, the Commission auctioned 154 tractors — over three times the number sold by Kurang and generated D13, 083, 000 ($263, 948 in February 2019) — only 2.5% more revenue than Kurang.
On the list of the people who questioned the manner the tractors were sold was Amadou Sanneh, a former finance minister at the time. “… We were not aware (of the sale of tractors). We only knew about it after they were sold,” said former minister Amadou Sanneh who spoke to The Republic in January 2024. Sanneh said the Commission, by selling itself, was acting judge and jury.
“Whatever they have saved, they should transfer to the arm of the government that is responsible… In financial transactions, we (referring to his profession as an auditor) try to avoid giving too much power to one entity.”
Some of the sellers were the buyers
While the Commission was still sitting, some of the assets of the former president were being sold in what was largely a firesale. The sold items included Jammeh’s vehicles, tractors, aircraft and livestock.
The monies recovered from some of these sales are not yet public and the names of the buyers were recorded only for the sale of the real estate and the assets found inside his resort, Dunes Resort and Casino. The vehicles and tractors were sold by the Commission. The aircraft were sold by the Ministry of Finance while the livestock were sold by the Sheriff Division of the High Court.
In March 2024 — following The Republic’s publication of an investigation into the sale of Jammeh’s livestock — justice minister Dawda Jallow told lawmakers he could not access any records on that sale.
There was another sale though, which little is known about. In May 2017, amidst the inquiry into the financial transactions of the former president, the Ministry of Justice filed a motion before Hon. Justice Mrs Amina Saho-Ceesay, freezing his assets. But only a limited number of assets were listed under this order and excluding items found in Dunes Resort and Casino. The Court appointed a popular audit firm, Augustus Prom, as The Receiver. The job of The Receiver is to manage the assets and report to the court on the state of affairs of management of the assets until the order is discharged.
In November 2018, following an order from the Commission of Inquiry, one Mustapha Jobe — an auctioneer — sold items found in the Dunes Resort and Casino, a process overseen by the court-appointed receiver. The resort was procured by the former president in 2013 for $650, 000 from money stolen from the Gambia National Petroleum Corporation, according to the Janneh Commission.
In December 2018, the former minister Abubacarr Tambadou told lawmakers that the sale of the materials at Dunes was carried out by Augustus Prom.
At least 60 paintings of different sizes, and various items totaling 103 found in the resort were sold at a total fee of D363, 534 ($7 319 as of December 2018). The records show a total expenditure of D109, 665 were made, out of which D36, 403 was paid to Augustus Prom as their 10% fee.
Luis Prom, the head of tax and advisory and receivership engagement manager at Augustus Prom, claimed the materials sold were “scrap and termite-infested items” though records show himself bought 6 “medium wall paintings” from the collection for D1000 each. When contacted, Luis declined to comment.
The auctioneer, Mustapha Jobe, who was on a rate of 6.5% (D23, 662) of total proceeds, bought 5 items himself, according to the sale records. These included a medium fridge for which he paid D1, 500 and a brown medium table for D300. Though they recorded others’ phone numbers on his report, he left his own out. The Republic made a number of attempts to reach Jobe but we did not get a reply.
Muntaga Sallah, who was a permanent secretary at the Office of the President at the time of the sale, bought 13 items, according to the records. These included fourteen complete sets of Queen Size Bed for D60, 000; eight sets of King Size Bed for D30, 000 and seven medium wall paintings for D5000. Sallah also declined to comment.
The buyer who made away with most items per individual is Sheriff Marong, a hotelier and businessman who owns Golden Beach Hotel. He bought 25 of the items including 16 “big wall paintings” for which he paid D13, 000. He also bought 17 ”medium wall paintings” for D2000. We made a number of attempts, through call and text, to reach Marong but he was not available for comment.
The record shows the assets were priced by E.N. Mechanical Services, a valuation services owned by Ebrima Njie, whose son Bubacarr Njie told The Republic he passed away in May 2023. Njie said he could not find any valuation report in his father’s records to share.
The picture showing the state of the belongings in the auctioneer’s 10-page report is not clear enough to make out the physical state of the items.
Ignoring better offers on sale of aircraft
In 2018 and 2019, the Gambia government sold five aircraft left behind by the former dictator to a popular businessman, Momodou Turo Darboe, for $740, 000 without any form of bidding, according to records. In July 2020, former finance minister Mambury Njie told lawmakers that the “… planes were bought through an offer made by the intended buyer and not by bidding.”
Njie claimed before lawmakers that though other offers were made, they were too minimal for a mention. However, available evidence points to the contrary.
The records obtained by The Republic show there were several offers by agents and potential buyers of the state aircraft that were better than offers made by Darboe. About 8 months before the Ministry of Finance under Amadou Sanneh sold Jammeh’s two agricultural spraying aircraft to Turo Darboe for $240, 000— the West Africa Aero Services had offered to buy the two aircraft for €240, 000. In dalasi value, the difference between the two offers is at least D1.6m. When contacted by The Republic in January 2024, Sanneh claimed he was not aware of the sale of the aircraft though it was sold in May 2018, a month before he was moved to the Ministry of Trade.
At least 7 months before the US-based Viridis Aviation Partners did a valuation for the aircraft, the company offered to sell them. It only charges the government 7.5% of the total sale value of the aircraft which it valued between $1.6m to $2.2m.
“By means of a commission-based remuneration, we aim to alleviate the unnecessary burden of having to further invest in an asset that you have already decided to dispose off, whilst at the same time guaranteeing maximum possible return on the asset by pegging our fees against sales value,” said Virdis in a letter to Gambia’s presidency and the office of the secretary general.
In July 2017, another US-based aircraft maintenance company that had previously worked on one of the aircraft— B727 C5–GOG— offered to serve as an agent to sell it for an 8% commission. This VIP configured aircraft made its last flight in December 2016, according to the Gambia Civil Aviation Authority. In a letter to Gambia’s presidency, Stamburg Aviation in Georgia, US, said the aircraft could fetch up to $1.7m though it formed part of the 3 aircraft government sold to Darboe for $500, 000.
When contacted for comment, former minister Njie referred The Republic to Yahya Drammeh, a deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Finance he said coordinated the sale. Drammeh also referred the Publication to Malick Jagne of Gambia Civil Aviation Authority who he said “made all the recommendations and assessments”. Jagne said while the GCAA made the “evaluation and recommendations”, the decision to sell was made by the Ministry, adding that the government has also failed to make a decision to sell the aircrafts on time.
US mansion goes to victims of human rights violation
In his 22-year rule, the Gambian leader Jammeh built a public image as a ‘pan—African’, frequently criticising the West’s policies in Africa. Away from the camera, Jammeh acquired an extravagant taste for western products.
In September 2010, through a trustee — MYJ Family Trust — he procured a $3.5m mansion in Maryland in the US. In 2022, the US Department of Justice secured a forfeiture of the asset after investigation both in Gambia and in the US confirmed the real estate was procured with stolen wealth.
The proceeds from the sale of the assets is due to be paid directly to the victims of the former dictator who are eligible to receive reparations for human rights violations, according to the justice minister Dawda Jallow.
An assessment by Gambia’s truth commission shows it needed at least $4m to pay reparations owed to all the victims of the former dictator. Close to $700, 000 was already paid to the victims. Part of the outstanding $3.3m payments is $625, 610 allocated to the relatives of the West African migrants killed on suspicion of being mercenaries in Gambia in 2005.
In April, the Gambian authorities established a Commission tasked to complete payment of reparations to victims already identified by the Truth Commission. The newly established Commission is also expected to assess other potential victims who may be worthy of reparations. Jammeh was accused of killing over 200 people and responsible for torture of many others in his 22–year rule, an inquiry established by the authorities has found.
“This story was supported by Code for Africa, and funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).”
