Nissangate: Lamin Sabi Sanyang- A Presidential pimp, NIA agent, Diplomat or Businessman?
-Echo Exclusive
By EBRIMA G. SANKAREH, Editor-In-Chief
Alhaji Yahya Jammeh&Deleware Beauty Queen Lauren Elizabeth Parkes
Over the past several years, we have been following the gradual rise of Lamin Sabi Sanyang our good old-friend into celebrity status and his has climaxed to a lamentable tale that we can no longer keep quiet.
While we have been receiving numerous allegations on Sanyang’s dubious activities at The Gambia’s ill-fated consulate in Washington, DC, we had always brushed it as utter malice given that during his school days, Sabi as he was affectionately called, was a paragon of virtue-modest, quiet and smiling. But that was then and this is now. Today, The Gambia Echo reports with overwhelming evidence that Lamin Sanyang (a.k.a Sabi) has been engaged in activities that are in gross contravention of his diplomatic status in the United States and we crave for the immediate indulgence of the State Department to investigate this. We are in possession of damning pictures and emails from some American girls who went to Hawaii with Mr. Sanyang where he had over $250,000 US Dollars (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand US Dollars) to spend on their vacationing. These girls have told their stories and at an appropriate time after the conclusion of our investigations, we will present everything as it was sent to us by girls who cannot believe why so much money is being spent on them when the people in The Gambia live in abject poverty. Some of their chilling testimonies bear evidence of a shady scheme that Lamin Sanyang operates where innocent American girls are lured into fake beauty pageantries to the West African state of The Gambia. “If Mr. Sanyang was sent to Washington, DC to operate as a presidential pimp and not a Financial Attaché, then the State Department must act now to set the records straight” one of the distraught girls told The Gambia Echo during a phone conversation lasting 45 minutes. “His activities are totally incompatible with his mission in the US,” alleges the girl. “He is involved in open extra-diplomatic liaisons for politicians in Africa and he uses diplomatic immunity accorded him by the United States Government to do this”, a girl alleged. “The money Sanyang spent on our trip to Hawaii alone, $250,000 could have provided scholarships to over a whole batch of students in the Gambian University that we found desperately asking for help while we were in West Africa” one of the girls told The Gambia Echo. “We did not realize how poor Gambia was until after we reached Banjul with flies all over, roads decimated by rainwater and clouds of dust all over the horizon” she alleges. “When the program kick-started, we had the impression that we were to use our celebrity status to raise funds for female education in The Gambia but our experience suggests the contrary; mere pomp and fanfare to show off and potentially lure innocent girls into some extra-diplomatic activities totally incompatible with the office of a diplomat." But how was Mr. Sanyang, a dude of a modest up bringing able to get $250,000 for a vacation in Hawaii when his yearly salary was less than $ 25000 we asked curiously? “He told us that his Excellency, President Yahya Jammeh had given him the money to spend on us and that he had also provided $1.5million US to charter a flight for our return trip to The Gambia” a respectable gentleman who accompanied the girls revealed to the Echo. According to this gentleman, a highly reputable American celebrity, “I was stupefied that in the face of massive suffering of the Gambian people, a diplomat could be entrusted with so much funds to lavishly spend on festivities and it was then that I decided to rethink my association with these people.”
In a related twist, a foreign ministry official reliably told The Echo that just recently, President Jammeh gave Lamin Sanyang an assignment to buy ten Nissan Trucks.
Sanyang engaged the services of an alleged con man identified only as Kalleh who presented himself as a Procurement Agent. Mr. Kalleh allegedly buys ten trucks from a dealership in Arizona. The dealers were so happy that they threw in one for free and between him and Mr. Sanyang, the extra truck that should have been Jammeh's is in their possession. According to our source, Sanyang is also allegedly involved in a massive visa fraud where naturalized Gambians are charged $100 visa fees and then these funds diverted into private use.
There is also damning allegation that Mr. Sanyang was one of the secret witnesses during the trial of U S based Gambian dissident journalist Fatou Jaw Manneh. While this cannot be confirmed we have for now only been able to establish that Mr. Sanyang was in The Gambia during the closed session of Fatou's trial. If this turns out to be factual, then Lamin Sanyang is no doubt an NIA agent masquerading as a financial attaché.
However, what we can confirm and even testify before any credible court of law is that according to our most credible Kissy Kissy Mansa, during Fatou’s ordeal, a lead investigator (name withheld for now) had on several occasions, made unwelcome sexual advances to the extent of proposing marriage to the woman. The said officer was apparently very displeased with the American Embassy over some personal experiences he had with the Visa Consular. This we know!!
We also know that President Yahya Jammeh through Lamin Sanyang paid for a round-trip ticket for 20-year-old Lauren Elizabeth Parkes, Miss Black Delaware, to The Gambia between May 23-June 4th. 2008. She currently attends the University of Delaware majoring in Fashion Merchandising &Leadership with a minor in Spanish Language.
Editor’s Note: We are in possession of some of the photos and email, and hopefully, after our consultations with our attorneys, we will be able to publish some of the images for all Gambians to see what kind of government we have.