JAMMEH AND THE CRUDE OIL: A CLASSICAL CASE OF DISHONESTY

Gambia L,

I am quite certain that so many of you would have been completely left
dumbfounded when you read, in the Monday issue of The Point Newspaper, Mr
Jammeh's Television interview with Neneh Macdoll, on the crude oil saga.

To tell you the truth, I, for one, was really left astounded and fuming for
that matter, when I read Mr Jammeh's interview with Neneh Macdoll, because
his side of the story was nothing less than a joke, or a classical case of
dishonesty.

It was all denials - nothing clear or convincing was said by Jammeh. How on
earth could Mr Jammeh come before the Gambian people, and allege that he had
to cancel the crude oil deal with Chantrils SA, because the Gambia
Government was impersonated by crooks who acted without his government's
authority?

Listen to him. "Those who signed the contract with Chantrils had signed on
behalf of Gambia Government with fake documents"...he told Neneh Macdoll.

Frankly, Gambia L, this assertion by Jammeh defies common sense, especially
with all the documentary evidence that exists. I, for one, have seen the
photocopied version of some of the documentary evidence tendered at the
London court, and, clearly, there is ample evidence to prove that Jammeh did
indeed know about this crude oil deal at the onset.

Does Jammeh seriously think that we are all gullible enough to accept such a
cheap explanation - from him - that "those who signed the contract with
Chantrils SA on behalf of the Gambia government had used fake documents"?

In all honesty, Jammeh's allegations that those who signed the contract with
Chantrils on behalf of the Gambia Government were using fake documents are
incredible/ludicrous, to say the least.

The question now arises: who actually signed the contract with Chantrils, on
behalf of the Gambia government?

Well, according to documentary evidence tendered at the London High Court,
it was Muhammed Juwara, Mr Jammeh's own Deputy Chief of Protocol, at the
time, who had signed the contract with Chantrils SA, on behalf of the Gambia
Government.

There is also evidence, tendered at the London court, that it was the then
Secretary of State for Trade, Dominic Mendy, who had issued the power of
Attorney to Mr deputy chief of protocol Juwara. In other words, it was
Dominic Mendy who authorised Mr Juwara to sign the contract on behalf of the
Gambia Government.

And, in fact, the signing ceremony, according to documentary evidence, was
witnessed by another right hand man of Mr Jammeh, called Samuel Sarr. Mr
Samuel Sarr, a Senegalese national, had served as the
go-between/intermediary between Chantrils SA and the Gambia Government.

Samuel Sarr himself did tell the London Court, in his deposition, that he
had dealt directly with Jammeh who told him (Sarr) "not to involve any
government department in the affair".

In fact, to make life easy for him, Jammeh himself had authorized the
issuance of a Gambian diplomatic passport to Samuel Sarr, so that he (Sarr)
can travel to and from the Gambia very easily.

By the way, the details of the late Sani Abacha's crude oil gift were worked
out by Retired Major Maba Jobe, Gambia's High Commissioner to Nigeria, and
Philip Bensouda, a Gambian businessman.

Anyway, in a bid to help the new reader who is not familiar with case, let
me give you background information.

                 BACKGROUND

Well, we all know that during the Commonwealth summit, held in New Zealand
in 1995, the Gambia was the only country that voted against the suspension
of Nigeria from the Commonwealth, after the hanging of writer Ken Saro Wiwa
by the then Abacha regime.

Following this, the relations between the late Abacha and Mr Jammeh,
according to Patrick Smith of the Africa Confidential Newsletter, became
more cemented, and, as a result, Abacha had asked the Nigerian Petroleum
Company (NPC) to give 20,000 barrels of crude oil a day to Gambia. This
crude oil deal, we now know, had lasted from August 1996 to June 1998.

Now, once Abacha authorised the NPC to give crude oil to the Gambia, the
Gambia Government or should I dare say Jammeh himself, hired  Chantrils SA,
a Panamanian subsidiary of Swiss based oil traders Glencore, to market
20,000 barrels a day of oil on behalf of the Gambia Government.

However, sometime in 1997, another oil trading firm, Marc Rich, offered Mr
Jammeh a better deal than Chantrils SA, and, as a result, Jammeh cancelled
the contract with Chantrils SA.

Chantrils SA then sued the Gambia Government for breach of contract at the
London High Court, and, as a result, the London court, on 25 April 1999,
ordered the Gambia Government to pay Chantrils US$601,000 dollars for having
defaulted on the contract.

Now, in the wake of this court ruling against his government, Jammeh
claimed, in a recent interview with Neneh Macdoll of Gambia TV, that he had
voided/terminated the contract with Chantrils SA, because that was in the
best interest of the Gambian people.

However, I am putting it to him (Mr Jammeh) that he, Jammeh, had cancelled
the contract with Chantrils, because of his own greed, and nothing else,
period.

I say this because there is evidence tendered at the London Court that
Chantrils SA had offered him 22 cents on every barrel, while the other
company which came afterwards, had offered him 30 cents out of every barrel.

So, for Heaven's sake, and as the "good muslim" he is claiming to be, let
Jammeh be honest and admit that he had cancelled the contract with Chantrils
SA, because the other company offered him 8 cents more than what Chantrils
SA had offered his government, on every barrel.

Having said that, the truth of the matter is that both Dominic Mendy and
Muhammed Juwara, who were pivotal to signing of the deal/contract with
Chantrils SA, were bona fide Gambia government officials at the time. By the
way, why has the Jammeh government agreed to pay Chantrils SA US$601,000
dollars, if, as Jammeh put it, they were impersonated?

Is Jammeh suggesting that they paid this US$601,000 to Chantrils, even
though they were impersonated? How incredible?

On the other hand, if it is true that Dominic Mendy and Muhammed Juwara had
indeed signed the contract with Chantrils SA without Government
authorisation, then what is preventing Mr Jammeh from holding Dominic and
Muhammed Juwara responsible, or taking them to court for allegedly forging
government documents?

Indeed, Jammeh has made very serious allegations which tacitly implicated
these two people (Dominic and Juwara) in particular, and I hope all the
officials who were involved in the deal, ranging from Maba Jobe, Philip
Bensouda, Muhammed Juwara to Dominic Mendy, would make a truthful public
statement to exonerate themselves.

If they fail to do so, Gambians should call on the Police to investigate the
matter, and whoever is found to have been involved in anything
fraudulent/illegal should be prosecuted.

In my view, the issues surrounding this deal ought to be resolved and all
the contradicting statements be reconciled, so that the whole truth may
prevail.

Central to establishing the truth/facts should be Members of the National
Assembly. The establishment of the truth, in my view, is both a moral and a
legal obligations incumbent upon all the Members of the National Assembly.

Consequently, I am suggesting that a sub-committee of MPs be formed, and
assigned to try and establish all the facts behind the crude oil deal. The
proposed committee of MPs can call on all the key players in the deal, and
question them over their various roles in the whole affair.

The importance of this issue requires that it be dealt with to the very end.
The interest of the Gambian people must be pursued, failure of which would
have left MPs fail in their responsibilities. The purpose for establishing
the "whole truth" is far from being "malicious" as implied by Jammeh.

I think those entrusted with the running of the country have a duty to be
transparent and accountable. What seems to be lacking in this deal is
transparency. Everything was done/conducted covertly, hence the suspicion
and lack of accountability.

Further to the complications is the fact that the Gambia government was sued
at the above mentioned Commercial Court in London and was indeed, and I
repeat indeed, found guilty of breach of contract.

Perhaps, the proposed committee of MPs can also summon the present Secretary
of State for Finance and ask him, on the record, whether the government did
pay the sum of US$601,000 to Chantrils SA and also why did they have to pay
it, since they were "impersonated".

Certainly, if the Gambia government did already pay this sum of US$601,000
to Chantrils SA, as seems to be the case, then it would be apparent that
they (the Government) have conceded to breaching of a contractual
relationship.

Otherwise, if as Jammeh seems to be arguing that the government was
impersonated, then why didn't the State use the doctrine of estoppel during
the proceedings/hearing of the case in London?

For those of you who do not know, this doctrine clearly states that no
person can become an agent of another except by the will of that person. So
clearly Chantrils SA cannot represent the Gambia Government if it hadn't
received authority from the government.

Or why didn't the government tell the London court that Dominic and Juwara
were not acting on its behalf since, legally speaking, the government cannot
be bound as a principal by a contract made that it did not authorise or know
about? Gambia L, if you are not smelling the dead rat, I, personally, am
smelling it for my nose is very good.

Isn't it ironic that Jammeh, on one hand, said that his government was
impersonated and yet, on the other hand, he still accepted or agreed to pay
the US$601,000, in breach of contract against Chantrils SA?

Jammeh wants us to believe that the documents signed were fake and yet his
government was found guilty by a properly constituted London court, of
breach of contract.

This is clearly a contradiction which ought to be reconciled. Meanwhile, Mr
Jammeh's down playing of the sum involved is ludicrous. The contract between
Chantrils SA and the Gambia Government had stipulated that the profits - put
at some US$5,000,000 million dollars a year - be paid into this Swiss
account, which is numbered No. J36650-70, at the United Overseas Bank, 11
Quai Des Bergues, Geneva.

So, just based on conservative estimates, the money accrued from the crude
oil, and kept in this private bank in Geneva, could be as high as US$5
million dollars. Therefore, is this sum - about D50,000,000 million dalasis
- a pittance as Mr Jammeh tries to convince us?

The is why it is incumbent on MPs to get to the bottom of the whole issue.
As I stated earlier on, there is a moral, as well as a legal need, to bring
this whole episode to a transparent conclusion.

And if Mr Jammeh himself is found to have been involved in any wrong doing,
then the MPs could remove him from office by relying on Section 63 Sub
section (3) of the Gambian Constitution.

The Sub Section reads: "A person elected as President may at anytime during
his term of office be removed from office, if a no confidence motion is
passed in the National Assembly supported by two thirds of the members of
the National Assembly."

Again, let me emphasise that it is not enough for Mr Jammeh to just dismiss
the allegations as "malicious" rumours, intended to defame him. The key
players who hatched the deal are still around. They ought to be summoned
before a properly constituted committee of MPs, so that the whole process
can systematically scrutinised.

It is imperative that all the key players involved in the deal - Maba Jobe,
Philip Bensouda, Muhammed Juwara and Dominic Mendy - submit a deposition to
the proposed committee of MPs, so that the facts and the fiction can be
distinguished/seperated.

And if it is established, for instance, that Dominic Mendy lied to the House
last year by denying the existence of such a crude oil deal, then I see no
reason why he shouldn't be prosecuted for deceit.

Meanwhile, in his interview with Neneh Macdoll, Mr Jammeh also asked
Gambians to find out who controls account No. J36650-70. Well, Mr Jammeh,
just calm down.

Don't panick!!! I can tell you that vigorous efforts are already being made
by concerned Gambians, and in the international media here, to find out who
controls the named account. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, the real
owner of the said account would be known/established.

Ebrima Ceesay,
Birmingham, UK.

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