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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