---Governor Bamba Saho & Finance Sect. Musa Bala Gaye Implicated

EBRIMA G. SANKAREH, Editor-In-Chief

Jammeh from Umra Pilgrimage (Courtey of The Daily Observer)

As Gambians are reeling from the irksome revelations of President Yahya Jammeh and Lamin Sabi Sanyang’s reckless, callous and remorseless looting of millions of dollars of Gambian money, our correspondent Kissy Kissy Mansa has yet another bombshell that the autocratic dictator has yet again, unleashed on the battered Gambian economy.

Reveals Kissy Kissy Mansa, “Yahya Jammeh has just spent a cool $1,000, 000 (one million US dollars) on furniture for his offices and residences in Banjul and Kanilai.  During his recent Umra trip to Saudi Arabia, his impulsive urges for luxury goods got the better part of him leading him to demand the $1 million.  He called in his instructions to the Central Bank and immediately dispatched his aircraft to Banjul to discreetly transport the money to him in Jeddah. Speaking of aircraft, in order to finance the purchase of his current aircraft, Yahya Jammeh demanded that the tax liabilities of all companies due in 2009 be paid in advance to pay for the aircraft.  As a result of this irresponsible and illegal act, a lot of businesses are in serious financial predicament, which is not of their making.”

According to Kissy, “both Musa Gibriel Balla Gaye and Bamba Saho of the Department of State for Finance and The Central Bank respectively, know exactly what I am talking about. Documentary evidence relating to these recent acts by Yahya Jammeh are being collected which I will share with The Gambia Echo in due course.”

Reveals Kissy, while Yahya Jammeh was threatening Gambian butchers during a press conference upon arrival at the Banjul Airport on Sunday morning, September 28, what the nation did not hear was that he had three days ago, instructed Musa Bala Gaye and Bamba Saho to take one million dollars and stack in his presidential jet because he wants to buy furniture he saw during the pilgrimage called Umra. Imagine the fuel cost for the jet not to talk about the $1,000,000 wasted on furniture while Gambians cannot get fish from the local market.

By a concomitant twist of cruel irony, the Daily Observer of Monday, September 29, 2008, quotes the errant leader in his clownish show of false bravado thus: “President Yahya Jammeh, Sunday morning, arrived in Banjul after a five-day religious journey to the Holy Land of Mecca, to perform this year’s Umra. He was received at the foot of the aircraft by the vice president, Aja Dr. Isatou Njie Saidy, Secretaries of state, and other high profile dignitaries. Speaking to reporters, shortly after the formal airport ceremonies, the Gambian leader said: "Let me assure Gambians that what I did with the taxi drivers (by bringing in a cheaper and reliable transport system) is what I am going do with butchers or something worse than that. Let them (the consumers) not panic; we have enough cattle to supply the whole market. No negotiation with butchers."

Who is actually hurting the consumers- the supposed savior who vows to fix corruption when he has looted every safe in the nation or the poor butchers with whom he competes in the market for beef to give to animals at a worthless zoo nestled in Kanilai; a ghost hamlet turned capital? You decide! For us though, one thing is crystal clear, Yahya Jammeh is not an exemplary leader nor is he religious for there is evidence aplenty that Yahya Jammeh is brutal, morally bankrupt and financially corrupt.