Gambia L,

The piece, which is reproduced below, is culled from today's issue of the
Daily Observer newspaper, and I thought it would be useful to forward it to
the L.

By the way, I must, first of all, point out that in the UK, there are so
many so called, or should I say, bogus European experts in Gambian Affairs,
but, at the same time, you do have some good ones.

And Patrick Smith of Africa Confidential, in my view, is one of the well
informed ones as far as the Gambia is concerned.

Most of the time - mark you I am not saying ALL THE TIME - his information
vis-a-vis the Gambia is always reliable, current and accurate. Consequently,
I, for one, would take his information on the Gambia very, very seriously.

Ebrima Ceesay
Birmingham, UK.



CRUDE OIL SAGA INTENSIFIES (Reprinted from the Daily Observer)

The controversy surrounding the crude oil deal, which has been subject of
debate in the country for the past two weeks intensified last evening.

Yesterday evening, Patrick Smith of Africa Confidential newsletter told the
BBC that 2 to 3 million US dollars per year may have accrued from the sale
of crude oil given to The Gambia by the Nigerian government between 1996 and
1998.

Mr Smith, who claimed to have mounted an investigation in
respect of the alleged crude oil transaction involving The Gambia,
was speaking on in an interview with the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

Explaining how the crude oil deal between The Gambia and Nigeria
was reached, Mr Smith alleged that The Gambia was supposed to
receive 20,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Nigeria. According to him,
during the Commonwealth Summit in 1995, The Gambia was
the only country that voted in favour of General Abacha after the
hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa.  The Gambian head of state voted for the lifting
of sanctions on Nigeria.

He claimed that this led to the warming of relations between the
late Abacha, and President Jammeh.  He said a year later, an oil
deal was reached in which General Abacha asked the Nigerian
National Petroleum Company to give 20,000 barrels of crude oil a
day to The Gambia.  He said the crude oil deal lasted from August
1996 to June 1998 when Abacha died.  He pointed out that what
was not clear was "whether the money accrued from the crude oil
was to the Gambia government or to an individual Gambian. He
alleged that the money was remitted into a private swiss bank account.

Mr Smith said Kemeseng Jammeh, the minority opposition leader in
May asked a parliamentary question to Dominic Mendy, the then
Finance Secretary about the crude oil deal and "Mendy denied
point blank that there have been any such arrangement until we
later discovered that Mendy's name was on a letter which gave
power of attorney to Muhammed Jawara, the then deputy chief of
Protocol in President's Jammeh's office, to approve a deal with a
Swiss oil trading company on behalf of the Gambia government,' he
said.

He said Chantrils Commercial SA (CCSA) sued the Gambia
government for breach of contract and that the court ruled in
favour of CCSA awarding them over US $600,000 dollars.

Ousainou Darboe, leader of the UDP during his new year message
alleged that President Jammeh diverted over US $1.9 million of the
crude oil proceeds into his personal use and that the crude oil
funds were remitted into a Swiss bank account numbered J36650-7C.

However, during his annual Koriteh meeting with religious leaders
at State House, President Jammeh emphatically denied involvement
in any illegal self-enriching crude oil deal. He described the
allegations as fallacious.









______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------