No sooner had we posted “The Gambia: Looming Economic Crisis” a damning opinion piece on the mini-West African nation’s ailing economy written by our New York correspondent, Tijan Nimaga than a highly placed security officer from State House sent us this revealing rejoinder. Below we reproduce verbatim what the security official feels about Famara Jatta, Sudan and Yahya Jammeh. Read on.
Ex-Central Bank Gov.Famara Jatta& Jammeh
The impression by your New York reporter Tijan Nimaga that Famara Jatta was forced to resign must be dispelled. To the contrary, the former Central Bank Governor and the longest serving Finance Minister in the A (F) PRC government of Yahya Jammeh enjoys the full support of Jammeh and Finance Minister in Jatta’s appointment to the post of Resident Representative of the ADB-African Development Bank in Khartoum.
In fact, both Jammeh and Finance Minister Musa Balla Gaye (below)
actively pressured the Bank to offer this specific position to Jatta who, history will judge to have contributed in a significant way to the downward spiral of a once well-managed Gambian economy. Famara Jatta, as Finance Minister, also presided over the looting of the Central Bank of The Gambia by Yahya Jammeh and Baba Jobe in fiscal year 2000/2001. Famara Jatta has full knowledge of where the looted resources have been spent and or stashed.
With the current pressure from the international community as a result of the 44 murdered Ghanaians by the Jammeh regime, coupled with the current economic hardship brought on as a result of bad fiscal and monetary policies - both set of policies ironically formulated by Famara Jatta as Finance Minister and then Central Bank Governor - Jammeh’s confidence in maintaining control over a slowly sinking ship has been shaken more than ever before. If you factor in the ever-present danger of those former security personnel exiled in the sub-region, then you begin to appreciate the tremendous pressure Jammeh is facing presently. At NIA we continue to face budgetary problems because hardly a day passes that Gambian dissidents do not put us on heightened alert about a potential invasion. Therefore, to move Famara Jatta to Khartoum serves the immediate purpose of getting him out of harms way and from the reach of his opponents.
However, an even more sinister motive in getting Famara the job is to get him to act as conduit for Jammeh with President El Bashir of Sudan. Famara Jatta is one of the very few people in The Gambia who enjoys the trust and confidence of Jammeh who can therefore fulfill the role of go-between. As employee of the ADB, Jatta enjoys full diplomatic immunity, which, in the dark world of Yahya Jammeh and his mafia friends, is a valuable commodity.
As a senior NIA officer I am privy to classified state security and can reveal that international investigators have been on the money trail starting from Khartoum and ending at State House in Banjul.
It can be reliably reported that in the run up to the last Presidential elections and the July 2006 African Union Summit, El Bashir bribed Yahya Jammeh several million Dollars which were delivered intermittently over a twelve month period. I am personally aware of a $200,000 that was delivered to Yahya Jammeh by one of his former Ministers at State House. I was amongst the security on guard when the Minister delivered the innocent looking package gift-wrapped. In fact, the security insisted on inspecting the package before allowing the Minister to hand deliver it to Jammeh who was seated in his study with Alieu Ngum, (seated below)
Former Secretary General Office of the President; we insisted on inspecting the package because Jammeh told us numerous times that he has never trusted this Minister. Immediately after he received the first installment, he went on national radio and TV and denounced the US and other Western democracies and said he was strongly against the deployment of UN troops to Darfur. This tells you how corruptible Yahya Jammeh is.
With Famara Jatta now in Khartoum, he is expected by Jammeh to act as his personal representative conveniently under diplomatic cover. Knowing how Yahya Jammeh used and then abandoned some of our colleagues like Daba Marena, Abdoulie Kujabi, Ngorr Secka, Baba Saho we can no longer keep these secretes. Therefore, those of us concerned have raised objections at the appropriate quarters about Famara Jatta’s appointment and to inform the relevant people to notify the shareholders of the Bank. For now, at least, that’s all we can do until the day that we will drive Jammeh into the Atlantic and request those responsible for plundering our nation’s wealth to give account.Copyright © 2007. 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.