Posted by By Bekai Njie
Items believed to have belonged to the former President Yahya Jammeh were yesterday displayed by the Janneh Commission after an inventory of his belongings were brought by Spt. Foday Baldeh, who said he is the commander of PIU at State House.
He said the items were found in luxurious vehicles of the former president after he was not allowed to travel with them. According to the witness, the items were found by Spt. Gorgi Mboob who handed over the items in suitcases.
The items found in the suitcases are as follows: title deeds and other documents belonging to the former president, power of attorney, extract of minutes of Cabinet meetings, file containing Jammeh Foundation for Peace(JFP) papers, file containing documents relating to Kanilai Family Farms, power of attorney dated 21 January, 2008, to Ousman Y. Bojang alias Pa Bojang, folder containing miscellaneous items belonging to the former president, documents showing aborted sale of challenger aircraft, collection of UTG medal, two gold coins, two necklaces, two gold-plated pistols and gold-plated watch, two precious stones, gold-plated pistol, twenty rounds of bullets, 36 executive vehicle keys and a bunch of various keys and two-month black fell pen and ink bottle.
The permanent secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Assan Jallow, also appeared before the commission in connection to the Japanese grants but failed to produce certain documents required by the commission.
Commission counsel, Amie Bensouda, told the commission that the witness was required to furnish the commission with certain information but failed to do so.
However, the witness replied that they had provided the commission with all the documents, noting that they had some files to submit.
Mr. Jallow stated that he thought that the commission would get in touch with their record office, but he was told by Counsel Bensouda that it was their office that should have furnished the commission with the required documents.
Counsel Bensouda further put it to him that one Ebrima Colley called him and would not pick up his phone.
At this juncture, Chairman Sourahata Janneh told the witness that they had powers to deal with witnesses, noting further that if the witness failed, the commission would resort to their power.
At this juncture, Counsel Bensouda told the chairman that the commission needed all the closed files regarding the Japanese grants from the year 1998 to date, list of Japanese aids, accounts of all the proceeds from 1998 to date, all contracts signed with Kanilai Group International, reconciliation of supplies made to KGI and amounts paid by KGI into the Central Bank Account, and any other relevant documents.
Chairman Sourahata Janneh, at this juncture, gave the witness until 20 March, 2018, to submit the documents required by the commission, and if he had any excuses, he could liaise with the secretary to the commission.
Earlier, Isatou Auber, former secretary to the Cabinet, who was served with a summons on 28 February, 2018, according to the process server, failed to appear before the commission.
She was summoned with regard to the payment of D7million from MRI. Counsel Bensouda then urged the chairman of the commission to warn the witness, noting that if she fails to appear on Thursday, a bench warrant should be served on her.