Baba Jobe's Family Suffer Eviction As State Freezes Assets of Jailed
Politician

The Independent (Banjul)
NEWS
July 26, 2004
Posted to the web July 26, 2004

By Sana Camara
Banjul

The family of disgraced former APRC strongman Baba Jobe have been evicted
from their homes following the government's announcement last week of its
decision to freeze the embattled politician's assets as requested by UN
Resolution 1532, The Independent can now confirm.

Without any notification to the Jobe family to that effect, plainclothes
enforcers of the eviction order had without any prior warning or ceremony
appeared at the various residences of Jobe's wives and brothers to demand
that they leave.

Baba Jobe's wife Tida Jaiteh-Jobe (who insisted on using this initial) his
ex-wife Mariama Janneh were told by security plainclothes to pack and leave
their abodes at Kololi and Cape Point respectively as the officers
proceeded to search and draw an inventory of household items they found in
those homes.

This abrupt but largely expected action came soon after the announcement
last week of the government's seizure of assets in the name of Mr. Jobe, a
former ruling party stalwart in the National Assembly where until his trial
and conviction for economic crimes against the state he was Majority
Leader. The misery of the Jobe family was compounded by further eviction
exercises on the jailed politician's brothers who until their eviction were
putting up residence in Kotu Layout. Momodou Sula Jobe, Mr. Jobe's elder
brother confirmed to The Independent over the weekend that Ebrima Jobe one
of his brothers had suffered from the eviction exercise against the Jobe
family and was now staying with relatives.

Baba Jobe's distraught wife Tida who was living in Kololi with her two
children (named after Jammeh's father Sulayman Junkung Jammeh and Ebrima
Suma First Lady Zainab Jammeh's late father) by Mr. Jobe was forced to
leave her residence and is now renting an apartment at Kerr Serign.

Baba's ex-wife Mariama Janneh who was living in the politician's Cape Point
residence with four of her children is now being rehabilitated by her
relatives.

For Tida Jaiteh, this development despite its dreariness is a matter of
predestination. "Ordinarily and under normal circumstances I will be
profoundly saddened and shocked. But I accept it unreservedly as God's own
verdict while I continue to pray daily for my husband. I have faith in God
and believe that this had been ordained by Him" Mrs. Jobe emotively told
The Independent, in a short telephone interview which betrayed the
dispirited feelings of a woman who until recently had been one of the
country's most prestigious and privileged women by dint of her husband's
hitherto influential position in the corridors of political power.

Meanwhile, as members of the Jobe family struggle to come to terms with
these dreary developments, reports are also being peddled that Baba Jobe's
rash of troubles may still be far from over. Unconfirmed reports speak of a
possible swoop on assets and properties linked to Mr. Jobe in his home
village of Karantaba in Jarra West, where a new opposition alliance
defeated an APRC-backed candidate in the by-election to fill the vacancy
left by his conviction and subsequent imprisonment. If these reports are
anything to go by, these and other assets in Karantaba with any smattering
of connections to his person are on the verge of being effectively seized.

Meanwhile reports of how the eviction order on the Jobe family was
exercised have been reaching The Independent, giving the impression that
they were carried out with the least caution for courtesy by the executing
officers. One report suggests that when the officers arrived at Jobe's
residence to conduct the eviction, they took inventory of household items
including furniture and beds, rejecting any claim their erstwhile users had
over them. Another report explains how one of Baba Jobe's brothers Ebrima
Jobe was refused the retention of some household items from his Kotu
residence.

Baba Jobe's properties and other assets in his name had been frozen, as the
APRC government suddenly changed tact and bowed to age-old UN demands for
his punishment for what is seen as his alleged international crime against
humanity. Mr. Jobe was under a UN ban for his reported involvement in a
roundly condemned trafficking in blood diamonds that was described as an
outrage as its proceeds were used to fund the war effort. The Gambia
government had come in spirited defence of Mr. Jobe, vehemently denying his
involvement and accusing foreign governments instead, of pursuing a devious
agenda against his country's government.




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