Africa-Press – Gambia. Abubacarr M. Tambadou, the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, returned this week to testify before the National Assembly’s special select committee investigating the sale and disposal of assets belonging to former President Yahya Jammeh.
In measured but pointed testimony, Mr. Tambadou described the government’s evolving approach to adjudicating third-party claims to properties tied to the Jammeh era. He said that while officials initially considered creating a dedicated commission to manage such disputes, the idea was eventually dropped.
“We became commission-fed because these commissions do cost money,” he said.
Instead, he told lawmakers, the government formed a ministerial task force charged with overseeing both the liquidation of Jammeh’s assets and the review of third-party claims—an arrangement he said received presidential approval.
Up to June 2020, he said, the Ministry of Justice maintained an open file to receive applications from claimants. The task force then prioritized the most clear-cut disputes, particularly those already subject to court proceedings or judicial sales.
“We decided to start with the most straightforward ones; the ministerial task force will abide by the outcome of the court’s decisions,” he said.
Mr. Tambadou outlined several categories of claims. Some involved properties that complainants said had been undervalued during judicial sales. Others involved assets that former President Jammeh was alleged to have pressured owners to sell. In certain cases, he added, the government offered claimants the option to repurchase their properties at the same prices Mr. Jammeh had paid.
“We decided to offer them the opportunity to buy back their properties at the price that the former president paid for those properties,” he said.
Among the individuals who filed claims, he named Modou Pull, Boubacarr Sompo Ceesay, and the owners of Futurelek.
But not all cases moved quickly. Mr. Tambadou acknowledged that more complicated disputes—including those involving former PPP ministers or individuals identified by the Janneh Commission—remained unresolved when he left office.
“These were more complex cases of claimants that I thought we could deal with later,” he said.
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