Africa-Press – Gambia. Justice Sheriff B. Tabally, former Sheriff of the High Court, has confirmed that Amadou Corra participated in the valuation of former President Yahya Jammeh’s cattle in Kanilai.
Testifying on Thursday before the National Assembly Committee investigating the sale of Jammeh’s assets, Justice Tabally said he encountered Mr. Corra on several occasions during his visits to Kanilai, though he could not confirm whether Corra was present throughout the sales process.
Justice Tabally explained that his office was not formally represented on the task force set up to oversee the sale of Jammeh’s assets, although one of his staff, Modou Musa, was part of the team.
“I spoke to Modou Musa, he said Mr. Jallow requested his assistance because of his expertise as a bar leave attaché to the Sheriff, but it was never formalized,” Tabally told the committee. He added that Musa’s participation in the task force did not affect his regular duties at the Sheriff’s office.
The former Sheriff also said his office prepared two notices regarding the assets: the first at the request of the Registrar General and the second at the request of Augustus Prom. The latter, however, was not accompanied by a formal written request.
“They reminded me that, whether I was aware of an order appointing them as receivers, they wanted to take custody of all these assets under their purview. They sought my assistance on how to implement that. As a result, I issued the notice, but it was not on a written request.”
He stated that Modou Musa was not involved in the procurement of the notice on this occasion. He further explained that Modou Musa did not report to him regarding his dealings with the Registrar General, except once: “Except on one instance when he expressed the challenges they had in accessing one of the properties occupied by one Aisha Fatty at the time.”
When asked why his office issued two notices accompanied by written requests, he explained, “It’s within our mandate as the office of the sheriff to assist in the implementation of court orders and judgments. So it’s not usual for the office of the Sheriff to be written to, to request for enforcement of orders. The practice by all lawyers is to present the specific order to the office of the Sheriff, so that I bring to your attention that this particular order or Judgment needs to be enforced, but to be sent via a letter to specifically request for it to be enforced is not a usual practice at the Sheriff.”
He confirmed that his office did not engage the Livestock Agency despite a court order to do so. When asked why the agency was not contacted to conduct the valuation, he explained, “Mr. Jallow told us that he had engaged the livestock agency, but it might be an oversight on the part of the sheriff; we did not ensure that there was a valuation report before the sales itself.”
When asked how and by whom the Sheriff’s Office was assisted in the valuation, Justice Tabally responded: “There was no valuation conducted by the Sheriff. Like I said, this is an exception; I have never dealt with livestock before. Even assuming that there was a valuation, it would have presented us with a challenge given the nature of the livestock concern here. If suppose, they were not well taken care of, it would have depreciated the value. There was a time gap between the evaluation and the sale itself. It would have presented us with a challenge.” Justice Tabally admitted responsibility for failing to conduct the valuation, acknowledging that this amounted to a violation of the court order.
Tabally also accepted responsibility for endorsing the execution of a court order he had not read and for the failure to advertise the livestock sales. “It was either an oversight or an error on the part of the office of the sheriff and myself, the Sheriff. I take responsibility for that,” he said.
He revealed that an individual assisted with the cattle valuation during the sales, though the person was not from the Gambia Livestock Marketing Agency. “After my findings recently, I came to realize that he was not from the Gambia Livestock Marketing Agency.”
He explained that upon joining the team on the first day, he found the individual already present and noted that his contribution proved useful. “We have no expertise in the value of cattle, myself in particular. I don’t know anything about cattle,” he admitted. He added that the individual guided them in accepting good offers during the sales.
When asked to identify the individual he was referring to, Justice Tabally responded, “Mr. Corra.” Counsel then inquired whether the name Amadou Corra sounded familiar, to which Tabally answered in the affirmative. He clarified, however, that he could not confirm whether Corra was present throughout the entire sale of the cattle, but noted that Corra was present on the occasions when he himself was in Kanilai.
He stated that it was Modou Musa who informed him that Amadou Corra had been engaged by the Ministry of Justice. He added that Modou Musa confirmed this directly to the Minister of Justice during a meeting held more than a month ago.
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