By Tabora Bojang
For the first time since a witness at the parliamentary enquiry on the sale and handling of former president Jammeh’s assets mentioned that one of the tractors was taken away by Presidential Adviser Dou Sanno, the influential ruling party bigwig has come out to clear the air.
The witness, Sergeant Omar Jagne, told the enquiry last October that he saw Dou Sanno arrived at the Kotu Vehicle Maintenance site, MSA, inspected the said tractor, and left.
The witness further alleged that Sanno later sent his driver to come and collect the tractor. “I was present when his driver arrived with a new battery which he fitted to the tractor before driving the vehicle away,” the witness told the enquiry back in October.
Mr Sanno has never spoken about the allegations made by the witness all this while, and the enquiry never called him to explain.
However Sanno was provoked to explain the issue by Foni Kansala NAM Almameh Gibba who, at a political rally in Ballen Village over the weekend, accused Sanno of stealing the tractor.
Responding to Gibba during an interview with journalist Yusupha Darboe, Dou Sanno confirmed receiving the tractor but insisted there was no fraud involved in it.
“The tractor was given to me by the Ministry of Agriculture through the former Minister, the late Omar Amadou Jallow (OJ) in consultation with the former Secretary General and Head of Civil Service, the late Dawda Fadera. The Government Vehicle Control office too is aware of everything and every record has been taken,” Sanno said. “So how can anyone call that stealing when all these officials were aware of it? That was not stealing, it was given to me. So I am asking Almameh Gibba to come out and aplogise. I also want to challenge him to take the issue to court if he genuinely believes I stole that tractor. Nobody sympathises a thief, so let him go to court,” Sanno urged Gibba, a big loyalist of the former president .
Dou Sanno also challenged the enquiry panel to come out and explain whether he had stolen the tractor.
Sanno then turned back to Gibba accusing him of “deceptive politics” while calling him a “failure.”
He claimed that Gibba was never a member of the APRC, but PDOIS, and only joined the Jammeh bandwagon after the change of government to mislead the people of Kansala from supporting President Barrow. He said his “war” with Gibba will continue unless the lawmaker ceases to act as a barrier, preventing the people of Foni from supporting the president.