Gambia’s former President Yahya Jammeh has been accused of stealing 11.4 million dollars, plundering the state coffers and shipping out luxury vehicles by cargo plane in his last week of power by the incoming government, according to a special adviser to the newly sworn President.
According to AP, the democratically elected President Adama Barrow’s special adviser Mai Ahmad Fatty told journalists that Jammeh made off with more than $11.4 million during a two-week period alone.
“The Gambia is in financial distress. The coffers are virtually empty. That is a state of fact,” Fatty said. “It has been confirmed by technicians in the ministry of finance and the Central Bank of the Gambia.”
Fatty also confirmed that a Chadian cargo plane had transported luxury goods out of the country on Jammeh’s behalf in his final hours in power, including an unknown number of vehicles. Further stating that he gave a directive that the remaining containers at the Guinea airport, believed to be holding the former ruler’s possessions remain at the airport and would stop any of Jammeh’s additional belongings from leaving Gambia.
Jammeh ended his 22 years in power by going into in exile and is now in Equatorial Guinea, home to Africa’s longest-serving ruler and not a state party to the International Criminal Court.
President Barrow remains in neighbouring Senegal and it is not clear when he will return. However the adviser to the President said that the president’s official residence, State House, need to be cleared of any possible hazards before Barrow’s arrival.
