BY EBRIMA G. SANKAREH, Editor-In-Chief

According to unimpeachable sources at The Gambia’s Foreign Ministry, Lamin Sabi Sanyang, Banjul’s once most powerful diplomatic hand in the US, has been elevated to the rank of Gambian Counsellor at its ill-fated Washington, DC Embassy following a shameful prosecutorial amnesty granted to him by Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh. A highly placed source that begged strict confidentiality at the US Embassy in Banjul, confirmed to The Gambia Echo in a phone conversation last night that Mr. Sanyang was issued a diplomatic visa last week and was poised to leave for Washington in the coming days. “Sometimes one wonders if the Gambian leader, Yahya Jammeh really has grey matter in his head, considering that the same person was a subject of a criminal case only last month and the sudden, impulsive appointment of Mr. Lamin as Counsellor, leaves a lot to be desired”, a highly placed State Department official confided in this reporter. “Sometimes, Mr. Jammeh’s moves make you wonder if he really cares about the reputation of his government at all,” said the diplomat. “Besides”, argues the highbrow diplomat, “considering The Gambia’s size and meager resources, why have an ambassador, deputy ambassador, counsellor, cultural attaché etc- for what?” “If my memory serves me well, this will be the first time in our diplomatic relation that The Gambia is sending a counsellor to Washington” recalls the diplomat. 

This latest twist follows Mr. Sanyang’s roller coaster ride with Yahya Jammeh’s justice that saw him arrested in Banjul on New Year’s day, 2009 and had him detained for three months incommunicado. He was subsequently arraigned before the courts accused of stealing well over $26,000.00, money allegedly meant for the purchase of drilling machines for President Jammeh. Ironically, that amount, pales in comparison to the lavish personal expenditures for President Jammeh amounting to almost $5000000.000 that The Gambia Echo had chronicled in the summer of 2008.

The errant diplomat, described by senior Foreign Affairs sources as “the bulldozer”, has the dubious distinction of being diplomatic errand boy-cum-pimp for the Gambian dictator. Over the past several years that he had presided over the poor West African state’s coffers in Washington, DC as financial attaché, Mr. Sanyang in cohorts with President Jammeh, was involved in unprecedented and potentially scandalous schemes of money transfers, armored car shipments and numerous other acts and schemes, not in tandem with his office.

Asked what his new role at the Washington Consulate entails, diplomatic sources in Banjul say he will be handling visa applications as well as lobby investors and probably continue running President Jammeh’s subterraneous errands. Be that as it may, it remains to be seen how Mr. Sanyang, the alleged bulldozer will be able to amicably work with Ebrima J. T. Kujabie, Musa M’boob and Neneh Macdouall Gaye. That diplomatic chemistry is something The Gambia Echo will continue to monitor with fascination.

However, based on Mr. Sanyang’s reported past with former ambassadors and senior diplomatic aides when he was only a financial attaché, there is evidence aplenty that we are about to witness unprecedented rancour except if the gods of the NIA’s Bambadinka and Mile II Prisons had dispossessed him of the political gravitas and or bravado he once, allegedly carried. However, if the apology letter he wrote to Yahya Jammeh only days after his case was quashed from the courts is to go by, one sees evidence of a fellow who is willing to serve under conditions of servitude in any capacity. That may be, I repeat, may be, evidence that the bulldozer’s arrogance have dissipated.

For now though, The Gambia Echo will continue to unravel all the past corruption files we have in our possession. In the coming days, we will publish correspondence among State House officials, Mr. Sanyang, one Dr. Bah, Permanent Secretary President’s office and the American beauty queens that President Jammeh was given money through Sanyang. We also have photos that we have decided not to use in the past and as soon as our lawyers finish with the legal aspect, we will share them with the public.All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this article or any other article or image, or portions thereof, in any form or context without the expressed permission of The Gambia Echo Newspaper.