Reports on Sunday had it that former President of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, allegedly looted over $11 million and several luxury cars, but investigations have revealed that he had none of the loots on him when he was ferried out of the country.
One of the advisers of President Adama Barrow, May Fatty, leveled the allegations of looting against Jammeh on Sunday.
However, when the curtain fell on the 22-year-reign of Jammeh and he had to leave Gambia on Saturday night, he left with none of the items allegedly looted on the plane leased to ferry him to Equatorial Guinea.
The plane was leased from one of Nigeria’s strongest politicians and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Falcon 900 was said to be then in the custody of the President of Guinea, Alpha Conde, who then deployed it for the movement of Jammeh.
Jammeh; his wife, Zainab; mother; and son, Mohammed, all wore mournful looks as they were being ferried out of Banjul, according to sources close to the outward journey of the ex-leader into exile.
The four of them and Conde were the only passengers in the leased jet, save for the crew.
Beyond the persuasive last-minute efforts of Conde of and Mauritania’s President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz, it was important that there was an aircraft on ground to complete the mission.
That was when the Guinean President, in whose custody Tinubu’s leased plane was, came in handy.
Considering the interest and tension the Gambian crisis had generated, investigations revealed that when contacted, Asiwaju Tinubu was reluctant at first but eventually agreed after assurances that the aircraft would be used to ferry Jammeh and his family only into exile.
For Tinubu, the facilitation of the restoration of peace to The Gambia was paramount.
But contrary to wild and unsubstantiated allegations that stolen monies were ferried out of the country on the same flight, investigations revealed otherwise.
“No such thing happened,” a source said, adding: “In fact it was impossible for looted monies to have been taken away on an aircraft that was in public glare.
“The radar of the international media, security forces and Gambian people was on the aircraft.
“It is practically impossible to load millions of dollars on the plane.
“In any case, no money was loaded into the plane save the Guinean President Conde, Jammeh, his wife, mother and son.”
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