OPINION
EXPOSING YAHYA JAMMEH AND HIS NEWSPAPER OBSERVER -PART THREE
BY AN OBSERVER INSIDER



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October 15, 2005
At one point efforts were made by the jailed Jarra MP Baba K Jobe, his
brother Momodou Sula Jobe, and Buba Baldeh to convince Jammeh to effect
the change of ownership in their names in a bid to undermine Amadou Samba
who was used as a front by Jammeh to purchase the Observer. Some transfers
of ownership were done at The Attorney General's offices, but for some
reasons, the said transfers were voided. Information available to us
indicates that Baba decided to give himself 90 percent share, while he
allocated his brother Momodou Sula Jobe with 10 percent share. Buba Baldeh
who scouted to be given 5 percent share was turned down for some
unexplained reasons. Despite his repeated protest to Baba for his request
a as shareholder in the said Observer ownership transfer was ignored.

Baba was given sweeping powers to coordinate the Observer at one Point. He
was the brain child of the disbanded Observer board headed by Lang Conteh,
the jailed former Central Bank Foreign Exchange manager. During board
meetings Lang will tell board members Baba said this, the President said
that. Such board meetings were intended to chart way forward to use the
paper and it staffers to propagate the APRC policies. In fact, at one
point Lang told board members that the Observer will be closed, if it
staffers failed to sell the image of the Jammeh government.

Lang's appointment as board chairman was a result of Baba Jobe's
recommendation. It was Baba Jobe, who recommended him to the President to
be appointed as the new board Chairman. Baba had on numerous occasions
ordered news prints for the Observer. From his prison cell, Jobe will
honestly tell you that he was acting on Jammeh's order to order such news
prints for Daily Observer.

During Buba Baldeh's tenure as Observer MD, we learnt that the paper's
finances were being used to sponsor APRC party activities. Some defunct
July 22ND Movement boys were also on the pay roll of Observer, even though
they were not rendering useful services to the paper.

Honestly speaking Buba Baldeh was bent on doing dirty work for Jammeh and
his government. He will call reporters in his office and try to create
stories that will vilify the opposition. He was not only writing stories
for the paper, but was also hell bent on giving misleading news tips to in
experienced young school leavers who took up journalism as their
profession. Buba will call them in his office and dictate to them stories
he perceived to be damaging to the opposition or certain individuals he
had an axe to grind with.

To give the devil its due, Buba is a good writer. Despite his lack of
grounding in journalism, he was writing powerful lead stories for the
Observer. Most of the time, he writes stories, he tried to pick on Lamin
Waa Juwara or some opposition groups in the country. Such stories were
treated with prominence by Observer. He was also writing developmental
commentaries in favour of the APRC under the banner of pen name.

Unfortunately for him, Jammeh decided to disown him one fine morning by
naming a replacement for him. Baldeh was not only fired, but detained as
well. He was accused of forging the signature of the then Secretary
General and Head of the Civil Service Julia Joiner to attract some so
called would be investors in The Gambia. He was also alleged to have used
his observer office to help certain foreign nationals with Gambian
diplomatic passports. Baldeh case was later dismissed by a local
magistrate for lack of evidence.

Jammeh was not happy with him at the time and he thought that the best way
to silence Baldeh was to intimidate him with such charges. What happened
later? The same Observer Baldeh was using to vilify Gambians turned
against him during his trial. Baldeh had openly complained about the
unfair media coverage given to him by the Observer. It was Baldeh's
contention that the Observer was siding with the government to send him to
jail. Baldeh had always maintains that the Observer was bent on
misreporting the proceedings of his alleged forgery case.

Guess what he did later? He resorted to asking a local newspaper to send
its reporters to the Bundung Magistrate Court to cover his case. Baldeh
never dreamt that he was going to be vindicated, as he always believed
that the magistrate was likely to send him to jail, in view of Observer's
"negative reportage of his case."

As the saying goes, the evil that men do, do live after them. The Observer
he one time used and abused later turned against him. History will also
judge the owner of Observer Yahya Jammeh one day.

One cannot completely rule out the possibility of Jammeh writing for the
Observer. Most of the Observer stories comes from the state house. We have
seen some instances, in which Jammeh will tell Observer reporters posted
at the State House that he doesn't want his stories to be edited. Such
messages coming from the President were conveyed to our editorial team. At
one point, editors were not keen at editing pieces concerning Jammeh.
State House early morning calls to the Observer were normal routine. "I
hope it is not the big man who is calling again? local staffers will
anxiously enquired.

We have seen Jammeh giving money to some unprincipled Observer and state
media journalists. These so called journalists, anytime they have the
opportunity of talking to Jammeh they will try to lure him into
conversation, so that he Jammeh will be sympathetic to their plight. We
don't want to name names now, but the individuals concerned know
themselves. Such pro Jammeh reporters will go extra mile to praise sing
him day in day out.

Honestly speaking Mr.Best, made the greatest mistake by selling his paper
to Yahya Jammeh through the help of Amadou Samba. Best's legacy in The
Gambia, had been reduced to a laughing stock. His dreams and fine plans
for The Gambian media had been shattered by some selfish and greedy
politicians hiding behind the name of media investment.

To those of you who do not know Amadou Samba, just to inform you that
Samba's richness came in the spot light, when our ill trained soldiers
under the leadership Yahya Jammeh came to power through a coup in 1994. We
are reliably informed that he was compensated by Jammeh for his role in
acting as an undercover agent to purchase the Observer. He was awarded the
airport contract, the Arch in Banjul, the Kanilai Manson and other private
businesses we do not what to name at this hour. We shall get to such
projects later on. Beside the kick backs he and Jammeh enjoyed, Amadou was
paid millions of dalasis just for the new airport construction, excluding
the mighty arch. Such contracts were never tendered or advertised. The
military boys were given money by their former mentor Gadaffi and the
Taiwanese government to embark on such wild elephant projects.

Amadou never agreed to be used for nothing to buy the Observer. The
Observer sale, in other words was a bless in disguise for Amadou Samba. It
brought some fortunes for him. Today, he is not bothered about the well
being of Observer. Non of the new Observer appointees mention his name in
their official statement, when they were hired. The reality is that Jammeh
owns the new Observer. Look out for part four. The ALLGAMBIAN, is your
major source of news. We are here to serve you.



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