By Mama A. Touray
Momodou Sabally, special adviser to the President, has described Gambia’s ongoing transition as “messy and difficult,” highlighting concerns about handling former President Yahya Jammeh’s assets.
Speaking on West Coast Radio on Monday, Sabally remarked, “We are going through a messy, difficult transition, and this Janneh Commission is one of the commissions set up to see us through the jungle to the promised land, where we have not reached yet.”
Sabally criticized the approach taken with the commission’s investigations, arguing that decisions were made emotionally rather than with careful reasoning.
“The problem with the transition process, especially with the Janneh Commission, is that we rush into these things with emotions when reasoning and due process should have guided us,” he said.
He also aimed at the former Minister of Justice, Ba Tambedou, stating, “As the leader of this whole process, he is doing everything wrong, and [he] will go down in history as the worst attorney general and minister of justice in The Gambia.”
Sabally maintained that his previous criticisms of the commission and Tambedou remain unchanged, despite his current position in government. “Some of them, like Alagie Kurang, think I will disavow the statements because I am in government, but Momodou Sabally, as an individual and not in any official capacity—whatever I said about Ba Tambedou and the commission—I still stand by it,” he said. “All I am interested in is the truth, not name-calling, finger-pointing, or trying to use this situation of young people who went out to make a legitimate demand for a list.”
Regarding Jammeh’s assets, Sabally acknowledged that he testified before the Janneh Commission but said he could not determine which properties were legally owned by Jammeh. “It is definitely possible that Jammeh would own one or two properties either from a salary or gifts,” he said.
He further criticised the handling of the former president, “The way Jammeh’s assets were handled, due process was not followed. They sold some of these things, shared some of these things, but I am not here to defend Jammeh. What I can make clear is that I am not here to defend anybody—I am for the truth.”
