Suku Who?
Hon. Suku Singhateh’s Viciousness Under The Microscope
As Parliamentary Chasms Intensify, Millions of farmers’ Dalasis in Limbo
By Alpha Sanyang in Banjul & Ebrima G. Sankareh, Raleigh NC
Hon. Suku Singhateh's poor victims
Unimpeachable sources reaching The Gambia Echo accuse Honourable Suku Singhateh as the force behind the rubble that is currently causing a stir at the National Assembly. The kleptocratic Suku is allegedly spearheading a campaign with an insignificant clique of disgruntled ruling party lawmakers, apparently, to bring in his relative Edward David Singhateh, the disgraced former Vice Chairman and megalomaniac state Minister of several Cabinet posts, as Speaker. News that Edward Singhateh a key player in the July 22, 1994 coup that toppled the Jawara government will be accepted in a regime he helped to destroy through his predacious nocturnal activities tells a lot about the government we are dealing with. Singhateh’s trail of havoc and destruction is everywhere for Gambians to see; remember Finance Minister Ousman Koro Ceesay, remember Lieutenant Basirou Barrow, remember Sgt. Fafa Nyang, remember Lt. Dot Faal, remember Lt. Saye, the list is long and scary. Since the July coup, only one person comes close to Singhateh’s remorseless callousness, Ousman Sonko current Interior Minister who is the subject of our scoop in days to come. Together with Abdoulie Kujabie, James Kujabie, #13 Badjie, Julakay Marena these people turned The Gambia, once an oasis of democracy and pluralism into a hellish nightmare through plunder and greed. Like the French monarch Louis X1V, these evil creatures of mayhem immersed in the retrogressive cliché of “L’E tat C’est Moi” –(the state is mine!) and systematically destroyed Gambian society to unimaginable heights. Their story is a sagacious tale of hooligans and bandits posing as government functionaries.
The unfortunate news of the probability of Edward Singhateh, the charismatic yet remorseless butcher of Banjul being reinstated and this time, as Speaker of the National Assembly broke in last week when President Jammeh was allegedly reported to be hesitant about what to do with him and the current Speaker, Fatoumatta Jahumpa Ceesay. In case President Jammeh remains indecisive about Singhateh’s fate, we at The Gambia Echo suggest Royal Victoria Hospital for mental evaluation. That some one like Edward Singhateh could commit all these atrocities and continue to drive like a normal human being, defies our imagination. The President was said to have acknowledged Speaker Jahumpa-Ceesay’s giant strides especially, in her efforts to crush the animosity between the opposing sides of the House and her unrelenting efforts in fighting for the image lifting of the irredeemable Gambian dictator. On the other hand, President Yahya Jammeh is said to be under some sort of pressure both from the Suku Singhateh group and from the fact that continuing to anger and humiliate Edward pose a formidable security threat to his rule. Thus, he wants to put him in a place where he could be closely watched but not close to Executive power, a situation Hon. Suku Singhateh is said to be currently capitalizing on and working very hard to bring his supposedly distant relative to the National Assembly. Lo and behold, Suku Singhateh; a quasi-baked illiterate, a convulsive womanizer of phenomenal proportions thinks if the Singhateh-speakership deal works, it would ultimately propel him closer to the corridors of state power. It remains to be seen what these cantankerous characters can do. One thing we know and we need no Marabout to tell us, is that with Suku Singhateh and Edward Singhateh in Parliament, The Gambia is up for heightened masibo a Mandinka pejorative that implies disaster.
Currently, there is a serious chasm in the National Assembly, which observers predict may be a prelude to a chaotic Parliament. Due to the raging cold war, the Assembly is divided into two camps. The major camp, which is with the incumbent Speaker, Fatou Jahumpa-Ceesay has almost all the opposition members in it. And, the few disgruntled ruling APRC members led by Suku Singhateh, mostly former Majority Leader Baba Jobe's disciples. This camp is comparatively minuscule but continues to cause a hard-to-ignore stalemate in the country's Parliament.
Apart from their efforts to have Edward Singhateh as Speaker, the Suku camp are also busy smearing the image of those associated with the status quo in the National Assembly. The current Speaker is credited for an impressive degree of camaraderie in the National Assembly to the extent that both the Majority and Minority leaders are treated equally notwithstanding their different views on national politics. Says Kissy Kissy Mansa, “Hon. Cherno Cham of Lower Nuimi, a schoolteacher with enormous experience and training had once acted funny towards Seedia Jatta of the opposition NADD but Speaker Fatoumata Jahumpa Ceesay rose to the occasion and stopped it immediately.” The Minority Leader and member for Kiang West, Momodou Sanneh, usually attends functions where the Speaker invites him alongside his parliamentary colleagues. This is a scenario the Suku camp currently seizes to use against Sanneh by claiming that he is about to abandon the main opposition UDP for the APRC, for merely appearing on national television.
Currently, Suku Singhateh is said to be so vicious that he isn't on talking terms with most of his colleagues in the National Assembly. But, that is not the only place where Suku’s sickening viciousness is manifest. Shortly after the National Assembly elections in 2007, Suku allegedly ordered the police in Baddibu to arrest his half-brother for merely having ran against him. As a result, the other Singhateh and a host of his UDP supporters were held behind bars and tortured for several days, until at such a period that Suku decided they should be released. His actions have caused deep-seated family animosity that would take time to heal.
How About Suku Singhateh’s Scandalous Peanut Business?
A Criminal or an honourable representative?
Besides the arrogance, the desire to be relevant and the convulsive womanizing, Hon. Suku Singhateh has the dubious distinction of being Gambia’s new Moboto Sese Seku a fierce fire-eater and a terrible kleptocratic member of parliament. In some quarters, it is argued that Suku is much more powerful than Baba Jobe, wields more gravitas than Isatou Njie Saidy and is seen as the indisputable Co-President to Yahya Jammeh. No doubt, the dude is currently engulfed in a major corruption scandal with the farmers of Central River Region and Action Aid-The Gambia at the receiving end. Facts uncovered by this newspaper indicate that the seemingly untouchable member for Badibou has stolen millions of dalasi being groundnut monies belonging to the poor farmers of this Region in The Gambia. The problem started following successive years of government's failure to provide market for the farmers’ groundnuts. Then the British Charity, Action Aid-The Gambia, intervened by partnering with the farmers in that region with a promise to lend money (with no interest) to potential buyers who would in turn agree to buy only, and the entire groundnut produce of those particular farmers. Hon. Suku Sese Seku (parden our sarcasm), who since his corrupt association with Baba Jobe has a penchant for business, stepped in as a serious bidder. As an elected representative, Action Aid-The Gambia found in him a credible candidate to get the money. An agreement was immediately sealed and Suku was given the money. The only thing that ensued after Suku got the millions of dalasi from the NGO was trouble which had two facets – one, he never paid back a single dalasi to Action Aid-The Gambia; and two, he never paid the farmers a single dalasi even though he took all their groundnuts.
Several efforts have been made by both the farmers and Action-The Gambia to recover the monies to no avail. Currently, the farmers and the NGO are still owed for the past two years and Suku neither intends to pay them nor talks to them despite all efforts to engage him in dialogue. In fact, the leaders of the farmers' groups jointly organized a press conference with Action Aid-The Gambia some time ago to expose Suku's corrupt act but only Foroyaa published the article with The Point giving reasons premised on libel, The Independent (whatever reason(s)), and the Daily Observer, not only refusing to publish the story on grounds that it would smear the image of the ruling party, but threatened to deal with the journalist who wrote the piece, following Suku Singhateh’s personal visit to the Daily Observer regarding the issue.
Predictably, given his power and prominence and taking advantage of his co-presidency, Suku is still going scot-free for the crime committed against both the poor farmers and the NGO, yet it seems if all is normal and the Jammeh regime is reluctant to even entertain such complaints from Action Aid-The Gambia. It can be recalled that the defrauded NGO was once temporarily closed down over allegations that it was an opposition body for merely engaging in a civic education programme for the population.
What continues to baffle many observers is the fact that Suku Singhateh is still unwilling to pay neither the farmers nor the NGO. In fact, Action Aid-The Gambia is alleged to have offered Suku an opportunity to pay only the farmers who are in miserable economic conditions, and leave out that which he owes them. True to his character, Suku, refused to even to talk to them nor take any action with regard to the matter. He drives around town with different cars and lives a flamboyant lifestyle, all apparently derived from dirty money. Where Suku Singhateh, an associate in crime with Baba Jobe and now friend of Edward Singhateh, with news claims of kinship derive his power from, and where he is heading to, is anybody’s wild guess.
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Editor’s Note: Sometime this week, we will publish our investigative report on Dida Halake the errant Managing Editor of the Gambian Daily Observer who has been insulting us for the past month and we will also as promised, publish our scoop on the Kujabies, # 13 Badjie, Julakay Marena etc.