Another reminder from our recent past.  Shame on Yaya and the Assembly if
they hoodwinked us the first time around.  Shame on the nation if they get
away with it the second time around.  This time is not Sam Sarr.  In his
place are two criminals in the image of businessmen, Amadou Samba and
Edrissa Jobe, who ever the hell he is.  I can assure you that a whole host
of names are going to be uncovered when we cross all the "Ts" and dot the
"Is".

A New Twist To The Crude Oil Saga


The Independent (Banjul)

May 29, 2000
Posted to the web May 29, 2000

D.A. Jawo
Banjul

The crude oil saga, which began as a small and incredible story has now
developed into a very big scandal threatening to rock the very fabric of the
APRC regime.

It appears that President Jammeh's 'bouncers' are doing everything within
their means to get him out of the hook, including trying vehemently to
destroy or descredit the overwhelming evidence already produced about the
deal. There is even the possibility that the exclusive interview recently
granted to the Daily Observer by Samuel Sarr,a very important personality in
the whole saga, was part of the scheme to loosen the hook on President
Jammeh, but instead the interview seems to have rekindled people's interest
in the matter and it has even raised more questions than answered them.

For instance, if president Jammeh does not own account number J36605-JC in
Switzerland, then he must tell us who it belongs to before we would believe
him. He should also tell us who the crude oil belonged to if not The Gambia
government, and why he as a Senegalese national was issued with a Gambian
diplomatic passport to transact the deal when it did not belong to the
government as he claims. Certainly the people of this country are now even
much more interested in the issue, because even if the crude oil was a gift
to President Jammeh by his friend and mentor the late Sanni Abacha of
Nigeria, then it makes the issue even more interesting to the people.
Therefore, Mr. Sarr needs to do more work if he wants to exonerate his
friend.

Let us recall that when President Jammeh was interviewed by Neneh Macdoll on
GRTS last year, he told us that the documents that were used to lift the
crude oil from Nigeria in the name of the Gambia government were forged and
that when he discovered that, he immediately stopped the deal, which is very
much at variance with what Mr. Sarr is telling us. Therefore, instead of
clarifying anything, Mr. Sarr's interview seems to have made it even muddier
and as such, it has made the need for a parliamentary committee to
investigate the matter even more urgent. It is indeed quite ironic when this
same regime in 1994 hurriedly set up a commission of inquiry to investigate
a similar scandal allegedly executed by the former Jawara regime with the
same Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), going to the extent of
even sending the commission members all the way to Panama and other places
just to get the necessary facts, and at the end of the inquiry, ex-President
Jawara and several other people were found culpable and eventually ordered
to pay huge amounts of money back to the government. Therefore, the only way
that President Jammeh can exonerate himself from this scandal is for him to
submit himself to a similar public investigation to determine whether or not
he was culpable. Otherwise, there is no way he can convince the people of
this country that we have not finally tumbled into the invisible 'Almighty
Allah's World Bank' that he had been claiming to draw his funds from in the
past. So far, all attempts by him and his 'bouncers' to rebut the
allegations have failed to convince anyone.

It appears that the APRC members in the National Assembly are in a real
dilemma as to how to handle with the issue. There is no doubt that it has
become a matter of public importance and therefore, the members owe it to
the people of this country to treat it as such. I agree with Sidia Jatta,
Member for Wuli that the very integrity and credibility of the National
Assembly is at stake and unless the members handled the issue with tact and
maturity, they risk being seens as mere puppets of the executive, interested
more in defending the status quo than safeguarding the national interest.
They however seem to be caught between not wanting to antagonise President
Jammeh, their party leader on the one hand and avoiding being seen as rubber
stamps and mere puppets of the executive on the other. They must however
make a decision on the 26th June when the National Assemblty reconvenes to
debate the issue, whether they would back their party leader and risk the
wrath of the people of this country or do what the people expect them to do,
and risk the wrath of President Jammeh.

This is indeed a hot issue for them to handle, and depending on how they
handle it, their very credibility as genuine representatives of the people
is at stake. It would be hard to imagine a majority of the APRC members
doing anything that would tend to question the integrity of President
Jammeh, but on the other hand, they seem to be left with no other option
because their very credibility and that of the National Assembly is at
stake.

It was also quite disappointing though not very surprising to hear the
member for Jarra Central Foday Lang Sarr remark that the people of his
constituency were not interested in the issue. With all due respects to
him,that was not only an irresponsible remark from an honourable member of
the National Assembly, but an insult to the people of Jarra Central, as if
they are not interested in issues of national importance like this one. He
indeed needs to be very careful of his utterances in the National Assembly
becuase whatever he says can be used against him during the next National
Assembly elections.




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