Africa-Press – Gambia. The Director General of the Gambia Livestock Marketing Agency (GILMA), Momodou Darboe, has confirmed a significant drop in the number of cattle on former President Yahya Jammeh’s farms, with over 2,800 unaccounted for between 2016 and 2017.
According to Mr. Darboe, a GILMA livestock inventory conducted in August 2016 found 3,456 cattle across three farms—Kanilai, Farato, and Banjulinding. By December 2017, that number had plummeted to just 638.
However, he denied claims that GILMA was responsible for the slaughter of 400 cattle in 2017, stressing that the agency never received a court order that would have enabled it to formally take custody or action regarding the livestock.
“It was on 17th June, 2017, that the agency received a letter from the Ministry of Agriculture. The letter was from one Ebrima Sankareh, stating that the agency should take over the livestock. The agency also responded to the letter, which was written by Mr. Ebrima Cham, telling them of their willingness to do it. But wanted clarity on the modality of implementation, the assignment was not spelled out, and a copy of a court order was also not given,” Mr. Darboe said.
He stated that following a request by the agency for the ministry to provide a court order, none was made available to his knowledge. When asked whether any further attempts were made to obtain the order, he replied, “It will be very difficult for me to comment on that because I was not there at the time. We were only banking on what we found in our file.”
He confirmed that when the commission of inquiry was established, they formally wrote to GILMA seeking an update.
“The letter that was sent to the ministry from the lead counsel was to give them the interim report of the livestock under their custody. GILMA responded that they were willing and committed to do the work, but they wanted them to give them terms of reference and also logistical modalities.”
He further stated that the Gambia Livestock Marketing Agency (GILMA) did not receive any formal communication from the Janneh Commission regarding plans to conduct a valuation and inventory of the livestock.
“We have not seen any letter to that effect. What I know is that from the records, the director of Technical Field Services communicated to one Mr Jallow at Justice. He went there then they discussed or through telephone communications, but we only found the valuation at one of our annual reports (2017),” he explained.
Regarding the slaughter of four hundred (400) cattle, Mr. Darboe refuted claims that GILMA failed to comply with the High Court order issued on 22nd May 2017. He explained, “It will be very difficult (to agree) because if you could remember, the time they received the first letter from the Ministry of Agriculture, they told them that they have not received the court order and again the lead counsel also wrote to them and they clearly stated that they (GILMA) did not receive the order. So if they did not receive the court order, the consequences and other things in that order may not be known to them. They also stated that they cannot do it without terms of reference; they don’t have the logistical support to do it because these are in different locations.”
Darboe confirmed GILMA participated in the livestock valuation and tagging exercise conducted under the direction of the Janneh Commission, stating, “It was on Sunday the 24th to Saturday the 30th December.”
When asked whether GILMA advised the Commission on the best approach to valuing and selling the animals, Darboe said he had not seen any formal recommendations.
“I have not seen any reports on that, but what I have seen was that there was a conversation between the then-director of Technical and Field Services. After that discussion, they proceeded to the valuation,” he said.
Mr. Darboe confirmed that five individuals participated in the livestock tagging exercise on behalf of GILMA. These individuals were Ebrima Cham, Samba John, Sheriff Bah, Buba Conta, and Samba Sowe.
When asked if all participants were GILMA employees, he clarified that only Ebrima Cham, Samba John, and the driver were agency staff. Sheriff Bah, a livestock assistant, and Buba Conta, a livestock dealer, were not employed by GILMA.
Regarding the involvement of private individuals in the tagging exercise, Mr. Darboe stated, “Frankly, it will be very difficult for me to tell you how they were selected. I don’t have anything about that. I got these notes from the then Director of Technical and Field Services.”
As for the valuation criteria, Darboe said GILMA received no formal report detailing the methodology. However, he was informed that cattle were categorized by size—small, medium, large, and extra-large. Due to the aggressive behavior of some animals, staff resorted to using colored paint and cloth-tied sticks to mark them from a distance instead of physical tags.
“One thing needs to be clear: we did not receive any report on the valuation in our files as far as GILMA is concerned. So, the method they used will be very difficult because we don’t receive any report for valuation. But I was told it was categorized into small, large, medium, and extra large. Those are the processes they use to tag, but some animals are aggressive; they find it very difficult to restrain them and tag them. What they did was to categorize them. They bought paints in different colors and had a long stick tie with clothes. If they, for example, agreed that the white color (cow) was small, they ticked it with a certain color, because they (the cattle) were aggressive and they could not be close to them,” he explained.
When asked how many cattle were tagged in Kanilai, Darboe said GILMA did not receive a specific report on that, adding that the Commission was responsible for documenting the process. “We consulted them, but what they told us was that it was the Janneh commission which was responsible for reporting,” he said.
He revealed that in August 2016, Kanilai had 1,476 cattle, but by December 2017, only 560 remained. In Farato, the herd decreased from 1,200 to 56, and in Banjulinding, from 780 to just 22. This left a total of 638 cattle across the three farms in 2017—a sharp decline from the 3,456 recorded the previous year.
When asked about the reason for this drastic reduction, Darboe suggested it could be linked to the absence of Jammeh himself. “In August 2016, by then, the former president was in the country and responsible for his cattle. Twelve months after he left, he’s not around; everything is possible.”
Finally, he clarified that GILMA was not involved in the sale of any of the livestock.
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