Breaking News: Gambia’s Powerful Diplomat, Lamin Sabi Sanyang Arrested, Under Police Detention

By EBRIMA G. SANKAREH, Editor-In-Chief

Diplomat Lamin Sabi Sanyang, in police detention, in Banjul

Unimpeachable and unassailable sources from the office of the Gambian president say that President Jammeh’s confidant and probably the West African nation’s most powerful diplomat (financial attaché), Lamin Sabi Sanyang, is languishing behind police cells at Banjul’s force headquarters. Sanyang who was visiting The Gambia for the New Year’s vacation was arrested in the early morning hours of Thursday (News Year’s day) from his native Banjulding about 24km off the capital, Banjul and then whisked to force headquarters for interrogation on serious allegations of economic crimes and sabotage; a treasonable offence under Gambian law. According to our sources, Sanyang is being assisted by a close friend of his only identified as Malang who is allegedly responsible for developing all of Mr. Sanyang’s lush properties in the Kombos.

Reveals Kissy Kissy Mansa, “President Jammeh feeling betrayed and visibly embarrassed by leaks of gross financial impropriety in the electronic media had ordered Mr. Sanyang’s immediate arrest once he knew the errant diplomat-cum-presidential pimp until then, was in town. Conspiracy theorists suggest that Sanyang was lured home by the autocratic Head of state only to be picked up later, a  pattern consistent with his efforts to bury evidence in the event of the inevitable. And since this was a high profile arrest, a joint-force operation comprising the National Intelligence Agency, the Serious Crimes Unit, the Criminal Investigation Unit and the Fraud Squad was mounted.” Reveals Kissy Kissy Mansa, Sanyang has been grilled on a barrage of allegations involving the transfer and alleged misuse and abuse of funds amounting to several hundred thousands of US dollars. At the center of the investigation is money in excess of $200,000 dollars meant for President Jammeh’s drilling machines, funds for the procurement of furniture for former ambassador Tamsir Jallow’s decrepit residence and other diplomatic hands within the ill-fated Washington DC, Embassy. Highly placed police sources say that Sanyang was stupefied by the allegations and had in some instances provided receipts to corroborate his side of the story. Quizzed further on the drilling machines, Sanyang reportedly told investigators that he had ordered the equipment but that the manufacturers in the United States had shipped them to Holland enroute to The Gambia. However, according to Kissy Kissy Mansa, this would be the second time that President Jammeh is having problems with drilling machines; the first being in 2005 when he purchased a set of drilling machines in South Africa at the cost of Eighty Thousand Pounds Sterling and once in The Gambia, the machines could not function. After numerous attempts to return the machines, the South African manufactures refused and the equipment allegedly meant for rocky terrains, continue to gather dust at Kanilai.  

However, some police sources suggest that the situation is developing and in the coming days, the investigation may take a new twist as there are allegations that for the three months he spent in Washington, DC, making him the shortest lived Gambian Ambassador there, Tamsir Jallow and family lived in a ghetto-like house, with dimly lit lights, sometimes no power at all. According to these sources, Ambassador Jallow’s residence in Wheaton, Silver Spring in the state of Maryland was dilapidated, with rustic furniture and television sets suited only for The Gambia National Museum and that reports in the complaint alleged that most of the time, the ambassador lived in open-windows to ventilate the rooms. According to these sources, money meant for the ambassador’s house was directly sent to Sanyang and he did nothing to improve the situation. Instead, he was allegedly busy orchestrating false allegations against Ambassador Jallow, which hasten his recall.   

As we went to press, our sources say that investigators want to question one Abou Kalleh a Red Coat shipping agent allegedly close to Sanyang whose name appeared prominently in The Echo in the month of September. Our sources have asked for patience with promises of more scoops in the coming days as investigators widen their nets. It can be recalled that on September 23, 2008 (barely three months ago), The Gambia Echo began exposing a massive corruption scheme involving Gambian President Yahya Jammeh and Lamin Sabi Sanyang in which Jammeh in a spate of six months, transferred to Sanyang the sum of Four Millions, Four Hundred and Eighty Thousand, Six Hundred and Thirty Four and Eighty Seven Cents ($4,480, 634.87).

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