Bailo, Walahi!  You said it all.

Chi Jaama

Joe

>From: Bailo Jallow <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: LANG CONTEH: A VILLAIN OR VICTIM OR BOTH?
>Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 02:11:31 +0100
>
>When Lang Conteh entered a plea-bargain, in essence admitting guilt to
>charges including theft of over 200 million Dalasis from the Central Bank
>of
>The Gambia, I opined the following:
>
>''From my very little grasp of law, I can dare concude that whereas what
>Lang Conteh stands to profit from the plea bargain is by no means clear or
>even certain to him as the defendant, the following is at least guaranteed
>by the plea bargain: The APRC regime has at least temporarilly been
>reprieved of very serious criminal disclosures on how a small clique of
>criminals under the direct gaze of Yahya Jammeh robbed Gambians of unknown
>millions of Dalasis. Had Lang Conteh mounted a very robust and vigorous
>defence of his role in the APRC's regime theft of millions of Dalasis from
>State coffers as he originally intended, the trail would have surely led
>directly to Yahya Jammeh's mouth. In order to avert such a compounding
>disaster on the grossly dishonest APRC leadership, Lang Conteh must have
>been persuaded to enter into a plea bargain in exchange for a lenient
>sentence from the State.''
>
>So it turned out that Lang Conteh got away with a very very lenient
>sentence, indeed! Considering the amount of money he's been accused of
>having squandered from the State's coffers which is said to be in excess of
>200 million Dalasis, a one-year custodial sentence is by all measures A
>GREAT GET-AWAY for him. However, if Mr Conteh has been heard rightly in his
>reaction, he is quoted of having stated that ''this is not what we
>agreed''.
>Does his reaction mean that he was expecting a lesser sentence than he got?
>I guess so but that's beside the point. I would proceed to get this
>unprecedented corruption scandal into some perspective.
>Sometime last year a group of 4 unemployed boys in my neighbourhood of
>Serekunda were convicted of having broken into a shop and stolen over a
>thousand Dalasis of merchandise. They were subsequently each sentenced to a
>jail term of 2 years in prison. They are still rightly serving their prison
>terms. Whereas there could be no excuse for what they did which was
>criminal
>and therefore duly deserved their two-year custodial sentences, their
>crimes
>were directed against only a unit of interest i.e the shop owner and his
>dependants and probably the feeling of insecurity caused within the
>neighbourhood of the crime scene as well. In the case of Lang Conteh,
>however, the crimes he committed was directed against the benefit or
>interests of every Gambian man, woman and child and even future generations
>of Gambians yet to be borned. If there were any justice in our society,
>Lang
>Conteh would have had Mile II Central Prisons as his permanent address for
>the rest of his life but we know ought to know better, that under the
>government of Yahya Jammeh student demonstrators exercising their God-given
>human rights were sentenced to death by summary execution while those of
>his
>associates who are directly responsible for wreaking the havoc of poverty
>on
>the masses are sent on just a year's leave of absence from society. Let us
>just contemplate how many Gambians could 200 million Dalasis lift out
>poverty if such an amount were to be invested towards that end? A great
>many
>indeed! Probably in about 10 months, Lang Conteh would be out of jail to
>enjoy the remainder of his loot, safely stashed somewhere. As for the group
>of boys serving their two-year jail terms, well, they have at least until
>November 2006 to come back to mainstream society. Is that justice?
>Without any hesitation, Lang Conteh could be proclaimed a villain. I was
>told by someone who knew him that he, Lang, is a very nice and sociable
>person. I personally don't think so. To me, his likes however charitable or
>generous they feign to be are nothing other than plain wicked and parasites
>to society at large.
>From another angle of perspective, Mr Conteh, though a villain and a
>criminal, is just another fall guy or a guilty scapegoat to cover for none
>other than the dishonesty of our head odf State. However hard the APRC
>government and their disinformation network try to potray Lang Conteh by
>distorting the truth, there could be no doubt that Lang Conteh is not the
>head of the thieves in the Gambia. NO HE SIMPLY IS NOT. We should all know
>that to be Yahya Jammeh. My justification for so saying is because Yahya
>Jammeh has stolen from our coffers more than any of his accomplices and
>certainly more than any other Gambian. His only respite for now is that he
>is in charge and could therefore send any member of his gang of thieves to
>prison as he wishes. In which respect, it could therefore be argued that
>Lang Conteh is also a victim of Yahya Jammeh's unscrupulous government.
>All said and considered, the real victims from all this web of corruption
>spun and spearheaded by the President of The Gambia continues to be the
>poor
>masses who pay more for his corrupt and dishonest demeanours.
>
>
>Gambians save The Gambia and God save us all.
>
>Bailo.
>
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