With more than 2,800 livestock missing between 2016 and 2017, Momodou Darboe, Director General of the Gambia Livestock Marketing Agency (GILMA), has acknowledged a sharp decline in the number of cattle on the properties of former President Yahya Jammeh.
According to Mr. Darboe, 3,456 cattle were discovered on three farms—Kanilai, Farato, and Banjulinding—during a GILMA livestock inventory carried out in August 2016. That number fell to just 638 by December 2017.
He did, however, refute allegations that GILMA was in charge of the 2017 slaughter of 400 cattle, emphasizing that the organization never obtained a court order that would have allowed it to formally take custody of or take action against the animals.
The agency got a letter from the Ministry of Agriculture on June 17, 2017. The agency should take over the livestock, according to a letter written by someone named Ebrima Sankareh. Additionally, the agency replied to the letter submitted by Mr. Ebrima Cham, indicating that they were eager to do so. However, Mr. Darboe stated that he needed clarification on the implementation method, the assignment was not clearly stated, and a copy of the court order was not provided.
He claimed that despite the agency’s request for a court order, he was unaware of any being provided by the government. “It will be very difficult for me to comment on that because I was not there at the time,” he said in response to a question about whether any additional attempts were made to acquire the order. All we could rely on was what we discovered in our file.
He attested that they formally wrote to GILMA to get an update upon the establishment of the committee of investigation.
The lead counsel’s letter to the ministry was intended to provide them with an interim report on the animals in their care. In response, GILMA stated that they were ready and willing to complete the task, but they need terms of reference and logistical details.
He added that the Janneh Commission had not formally notified the Gambia Livestock Marketing Agency (GILMA) of any preparations to carry out an inventory and valuation of the livestock.
“We haven’t seen a letter that says that. According to the documents, the Technical Field Services director spoke with a Mr. Jallow at Justice. He went there and they talked over the phone, but we only discovered the valuation in one of our yearly reports from 2017,” he said.
Mr. Darboe denied allegations that GILMA had disregarded the High Court’s decision dated May 22, 2017, concerning the slaughter of 400 animals. “It will be extremely difficult (to agree),” he explained, “because, as you may recall, when they first received the letter from the Ministry of Agriculture, they informed them that they had not received the court order. The lead counsel then wrote to them again, making it clear that GILMA had not received the order. Therefore, they might not be aware of the repercussions and other details of the court ruling if they did not get it. They added that since they are in different places, they lack the logistical assistance and are unable to complete the task without terms of reference.
“It was on Sunday the 24th to Saturday the 30th December,” Darboe said, confirming that GILMA took part in the cattle valuation and tagging exercise overseen by the Janneh Commission.
Darboe responded that he had not received any official suggestions from GILMA regarding the optimum method for appraising and selling the animals.
Although I haven’t seen any news about it, I have noticed that the Technical and Field Services director at the time had a chat. They moved on to the valuation following that conversation,” he stated.
On behalf of GILMA, Mr. Darboe attested that five people took part in the cattle tagging activity. They were Sheriff Bah, Samba John, Buba Conta, Samba Sowe, and Ebrima Cham.
He explained that only Ebrima Cham, Samba John, and the driver were agency workers when questioned if all participants were GILMA employees. Buba Conta, a livestock dealer, and Sheriff Bah, a livestock helper, did not work for GILMA.
“To be honest, it will be very difficult for me to tell you how they were selected,” Mr. Darboe said in reference to the participation of private individuals in the tagging effort. Regarding that, I have nothing. The Director of Technical and Field Services at the time gave me these notes.
According to Darboe, GILMA was not provided with a written report that outlined the process for the valuation criterion. He was told, however, that cattle were divided into four sizes: small, medium, large, and extra-large. Staff had to brand some animals from a distance using cloth-tied sticks and colored paint instead of real tags because of their aggressive behavior.
It must be made apparent that, in terms of GILMA, we did not get a report on the valuation in our files. Since we don’t receive any reports for valuation, the method they utilized will be extremely challenging. However, I was informed that there were four sizes: small, large, medium, and extra large. They tag using those procedures, but some animals are so hostile that it is quite difficult to tag and hold them. They classified them, that’s what. They had a long stick tie with garments and purchased paints in various colors. For instance, he noted, “they ticked it with a certain color if they agreed that the white color (cow) was small because they (the cattle) were aggressive and they could not be close to them.”
Darboe responded that the Commission was in charge of recording the procedure and that GILMA did not get a detailed report on the number of livestock that were tagged in Kanilai. “We spoke with them, but they informed us that the Janneh commission was in charge of reporting,” he stated.
According to him, Kanilai had 1,476 cattle in August 2016 but only 560 remained by December 2017. The number of animals dropped from 1,200 to 56 in Farato and from 780 to just 22 in Banjulinding. This resulted in 638 animals overall on the three farms in 2017—a significant decrease from the 3,456 livestock that were counted the year before.
In response to a question concerning the cause of this significant cut, Darboe proposed that it might be related to Jammeh’s own absence. The former president was in the nation by August 2016 and in charge of his livestock at that time. He isn’t here twelve months after he departed; anything can happen.
Lastly, he explained that none of the livestock sales were a result of GILMA.
