Dampha,
Great piece! It will be good if we can come up with suggestions regarding
the logistics needed in winning the elections. Or maybe i have missed that
part. I suggest we once again make a collective appeal for a united
opposition as a stepping stone in the realisation of your piece.
Minos


>From: Dampha Kebba <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Moving Forward ---- Asset Recoveries
>Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 15:21:53 -0400
>
>In the same spirit I counseled here the other day that Subscribers versed
>in
>certain areas should try and draw out working papers for the Opposition as
>we move to October 2001, I will attempt to get the ball rolling by setting
>out what I hope will be the first post in a series of posts addressing HOW
>the Opposition is going to better the lot of Gambians when it is elected
>after the 2001 elections. I welcome criticism of these suggestions and I
>hope in the final analysis the Opposition on the ground would see these
>suggestions as merely trying to supplement the brilliant plans they already
>have in their arsenal. Now, there is no turning back. APRC CANNOT steal
>some
>of our good ideas and implement them in order to win votes. They have
>woefully failed the Gambian people and they CANNOT put sand over this
>wound.
>
>Today I would like to talk about 'ASSET RECOVERIES'. At the onset let me
>categorically say that this is NOT about 'Asset Evaluation' and kangaroo
>courts. Rather than assuming that people are guilty from the onset and
>shifting the burden on them to prove that they are not corrupt, we are
>going
>to come up with solid FACTS to prove AFPRC/APRC corruption. We will hoist
>the vermin to regular courts. Try them like all common criminals. Seize
>their ill-gotten gains and sell them for the common good.
>
>We are going to establish a SPECIAL COURT manned by two of our top Gambian
>judges. We will clear the docket for these judges and transfer all their
>regular cases to some of those foreign judges that would still be in the
>country.
>
>We will form a crack team of investigators headed by a top-notch
>PROSECUTOR.
>The investigating team will be given wide powers to probe bank transfers
>and
>all sorts of transactions these vermin have been engaged in. One of the
>first pieces of legislation our new president would want to pass would be
>an
>'Act establishing the office of this special prosecutor'. This body can be
>an appendage of the AG Chambers. But the prosecutor need not be an employee
>of AG Chambers. The prosecutor and his team of lawyers and investigators
>(accountants, police officers, journalists etc.) will be given wide powers
>to decide what cases to prosecute and what plea bargains (immunity) to
>accept in order to get to the millions of dollars these vermin stole from
>us.
>
>As soon as practicable under our laws, we should freeze all the ill-gotten
>gains of the vermin. We should seize all their travel documents to prevent
>them from absconding. All can be done through court orders. To investigate,
>try, convict and punish these vermin should NOT take long. They are so
>stupid and arrogant that they have NOT covered their tracks sufficiently.
>Take for instance the 'complaint' Yaya filed in Swiss Courts on January 16,
>1996. The vermin used our own AG's Chambers and Gambian taxpayers' money to
>fight a court battle in Switzerland against Ebou Jallow. Apart from the
>storied US $3 million Yaya transferred from the Gambian Central Bank to a
>personal Swiss account at Credit Lyonnais, Yaya also claimed against Ebou
>Jallow the staggering sum of US $20 (twenty) million which was deposited at
>the Citibank N.A. New York branch in Geneva.
>
>The vermin CANNOT deny this. There are public court documents to prove what
>I am saying. Now, is the then Attorney General of The Gambia (in 1996)
>going
>to stand up and say that the moneys recovered from Ebou Jallow went into
>Gambian coffers? As you can see, getting to the bottom of these cases is
>piece of cake. There are somewhat similar court documents cataloguing their
>shenanigans in the Nigerian Crude Oil Deal. Moneys that changed hands with
>corporations like CSE in order to grant them government contracts would
>also
>be easy to prove. To prove that Tarik Musa and Amadou Samba do NOT own
>Yaya's plane is also child's play.
>
>We should work swiftly (with due process of course) to recover these
>ill-gotten gains. The moneys we recover will go a long way in financing
>some
>of our most urgent projects. Rather than taking out loans and further
>burdening our children, let us pounce on Yaya and his cronies and seize
>their ill-gotten gains. We should endeavor to strip the vermin naked in the
>FIRST 100 DAYS of the new Administration.
>
>Recap: pass a law to establish the office of a special prosecutor. Give the
>prosecutor a budget and powers to investigate and prosecute corruption
>case;
>while Yaya and his cohorts are at Mile Two courtesy of real court orders.
>Take aside two Gambian judges and clear their dockets. Parade the vermin on
>National TV and show the whole world what the mental midgets have been up
>to
>the past seven years.
>
>I again respectfully urge subscribers to critique my points and also come
>up
>with other suggestions as to what we are going to do for the Gambian people
>AFTER Yaya. Ebrima Ceesay, I am NOT trying to single you out, but I would
>think that your excellent series on 'Messages to the Gambian people' is a
>good resource to use in order to look at the failures of the vermin and
>provide plans that will help us avoid those failures. We also have fine
>economists in our midst. Fine soldiers. Great engineers, doctors and
>computer wiz. I encourage all to try and chip in. We must NOT leave our
>people to the mercy of these vermin and their misinformation. As we give
>our
>Opposition leaders material support, let us also try and share with them
>good ideas that will move the country forward when we get rid of the
>vermin.
>KB
>
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