By Fatou Sowe
Mr Bolaji Ayodele the managing director of Guaranty Trust Bank has told the Janneh Commission that former President Yahya Jammeh had his salary at GTBank and it was D170, 000.
He told the commission that Jammeh had four accounts with the bank including his salary account and other three accounts which were foreign currency accounts all opened in 2015. He added that the last transaction on his salary account was on January 23, 2017.
Mr. Ayodele said that the total deposit into the account was D5, 780,725 and the balance was D4,207, 889.63, further adding that there were two withdrawals.
He testified that the Euro account was opened on 8th January 2015 with a deposit of €15, 833.03 and the pound sterling account was opened in 2015 with a deposit of £12, 500.
With regard to the office of the former First Lady’s account, the witness revealed that there were four accounts opened on October 10, 2016; namely Dalasi, Euro and Dollar accounts respectively but there was no Sterling account.
On the dalasi account, former First Lady, Zainab Jammeh and Alagie Ousman Ceesay were signatories to the account and the first transaction was done on the same day the account was opened while the last transaction was on January 13, 2017.
The total deposited into the account, according to him, was D126, 844.20. According to him, this account was classified as government account because it was opened based on the letter the bank received from the office of the First Lady and the balance in this account was D15.
On the Dollar account, he stated that it was opened on October 10, 2016 and the last transaction on it was made on January 13, 2017. There was a total deposit of $287, 451 leaving a balance $8, 691.
He said all the payments were in cash deposited by Alagie Ousman Ceesay, Chief Of Protocol Officer, office of the former president. He however disclosed that there were various transfers to the United States of America, France and Morocco and there were twenty-six transfers in three months.
On the Euro account, the banker testified that there was a deposit of €33,896.52 in the account and the first transaction was make on January 10, 2017, while the last transaction was made on January 13, 2017, and that there were five deposits made by Alagie Ousman Ceesay.
Mr. Ayodele further disclosed that all the transfers were sent to The US to different payees and the balance was €0.31; adding that there was no pound sterling account.
At that juncture, the witness agreed with Counsel Bensouda that the accounts were used for the First Lady’s personal business.
Documents relating to all these accounts were tendered and admitted as exhibits.
On Operation Save the Children Account, the account had both Dalasi and Dollar accounts and the signatories were former First Lady and the former Vice President, Isatou Njie Saidy.
The accounts were opened on January 29, 2016 and there was a letter from the office of the former First Lady, signed by Fatou Mass Jobe-Njie.
According to him, the first transaction was made on September 28, 2016, while the last transaction was made on March 8, 2017 and the account was frozen.
He said the total deposit in this account was $506, 865,160 and the sum of $25, 000 was transferred to Israel and there were two cheques amounting to $68, 250 and $88, 000 which were all transferred.
He said there was a balance of $597,165 and the sum of $4,190 was transferred to T.K Motors and that there was no transfer of dollars to hospitals.
On the dalasi account, Mr. Bolaji revealed that the sum of D21, 237, 877.60 was deposited while the balance was D1, 494, 261.58 and the first transaction was on February 16, 2016, while the last transaction was on November 28, 2017.
He added that the sources of the funds were donor agencies, and the Republic of China donated over $400, 000 into the dollar account. He further disclosed that Jah Oil Company donated D1, 000, 000 while NAWEC donated D400, 000, as well as Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), Gambia International Airline (GIA) and Gambia Food Safety all donated significant amount to Save the Children dalasi account through buying tables for gala dinners.
