By Sulayman Waan
Leader of the opposition Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) Party, Fabakary Tombong Jatta has described Justice Minister and Attorney General, Abubacarr M. Tambadou’s statement on the report of commission of Inquiry popularly known as Janneh Commission as prejudice.
Janneh Commission of Inquiry, which probed into the financial dealings of former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh and his close associates, presented its report to the Gambian leader Adama Barrow indicating that Jammeh pilfered.
In an interview with Fabakary Tombong Jatta on Wednesday at his residence in Talinding described the Justice Minister’s statement during the presentation of Janneh Commission’s report as prejudice, “his remarks were inaccurate, unfair and Prejudice,” he said
In his statement during the presentation of the commission’s report to the Gambian leader Minister Tambedou said “the huge amounts of money embezzled by the former President and his close associates which the Commission has uncovered and which we intend to recover. For instance, it has now been established that the former President alone pilfered at least D1, 065,012,512; $304, 718, 071; 29, 475, 269 Euros; and 2,250,000 Pounds Sterling.”
He continued that “this is a staggering amount of money that could have had significant impact on the lives of the ordinary people of this country, health, education, agriculture and many other priority areas. Instead, it was money used to satisfy the pretentious and delusional lifestyle of an egotistic megalomaniac; acts that were both unconscionable and criminal.”
Jatta stressed that the commission was not a court but a commission set up to investigate matters related to its terms of reference, adding that people went to the commission and talked, mostly without evidence.
He went on that some say they were authorized to withdraw monies while they don’t have the letter of authority, “where is the money or the receipt,” he queried.
“The commission is not a court therefore, when the report was delivered to the president, the Attorney General shouldn’t tell the public that the Commission had made it clear and proven that former President Jammeh and his closed associates have embezzled public funds,” he lamented.
Jatta argued that Baa Tambedu does not have any mandate to make a declaration of certainty of the report, saying the document was only an investigation made by the commission.
“The report is just submitted and he is telling the world that the report is true and the former President is guilty. This is an unfair statement and this is the least I was expecting from him,” he said.
According to him, Counsel Amie Bensuda should have excuse herself from the investigation team since she’s working with a governmental institution that was part of the finding.
He added that “she should equally go before the commission because if investigation is done and you are culpable. You should come out to explain yourself.”
He iterated that as long as the former President and some of his associates did not appear before the commission to speak of their own side of the stories therefore, the investigation is one sided.