By Lamin Njie
Former AFPRC junta spokesperson Ebou Jallow has rejected the Barrow administration’s decision that he should pay back 1.6 billion dalasis of Taiwan aid that went missing.
Ebou Jallow and two former military officers of the AFPRC junta have been found guilty of leading the 1995 negotiations that led to Taiwan giving The Gambia a loan of $35,000,000.
However, the staggering sum can’t be accounted for.
But the Janneh Commission, an investigation that was set up in 2017 to look into the financial, business and assets dealings of former President Yahya Jammeh has said it is Ebou Jallow, Edward Singhatey and Yankuba Touray who should be held responsible.
As a result, the Barrow administration has ordered the three men to pay the money in 30 days.
But Mr Jallow in a reposte on Saturday slammed the Janneh Commission as illegal.
The former junta top-shot said: “The Janneh Commission just like the TRRC is not in compliance with Gambian Constitution. It has now turned out to be nothing but a purely political process to malign and witch-hunt perceived enemies.
“It was the Minister of Justice himself, Ba Marie-Tambedou through Saihou Saidy-Leigh of the UDP who cajoled me into participating with the Janneh Commission, and I accepted it knowing fully well what I was going to do: debunking lies. I have no doubt today that President Barrow is nothing but an unfortunate lame-duck president with an incredibly sinister and incompetent administration at his service constantly misleading him into serious errors in governance.
“Nobody has ever served me an adverse mention from The Gambia government according to law. The Gambian Constitution Section 204 states very clearly -(1) “Where a Commission of Inquiry makes an adverse finding against any person, it shall, at the time of submitting its report to the President, inform such persons of the finding and the reasons therefore.” Yet The Gambia government blatantly abused its authority and went on a smear campaign in a typical fashion of a banana republic calling the establishment of a bona fide diplomatic relation between two sovereign countries a “forgery”. President Barrow’s government also nose-dived further to the deep end of mendacity by accusing me of being part of “the AFPRC that failed to account $32,220,000 of the loan from Taiwan…”.
“I resigned from the AFPRC just about two months after the Gambia Government secured the loan from the Republic of China Export-Import Bank, and $30M of those proceeds were deposited at the Republic of Gambia Special Development Account with the Citibank, NY; $2.3M was deposited in a Special Government Account with the Central Bank in cash; and Yaya Jammeh kept the remainder in his custody at the State House at 1 Marina Parade. The entire loan package was later ratified by The Gambia National Assembly into law. If the Gambia government was interested in the truth rather than political chicanery they could have easily identified and traced every transaction from those bank accounts managed by the Gambia Central Bank. The records of these transactions exist. I have copies, and so do the Citi Bank of NY and the Central Bank in the Gambia.”
