Open Gambia platform received additional information after our 25th August publications on the ongoing National Assembly inquiry into allegations of bribery and tax evasion led by the First Lady Fatoumata Barrow and State officers involved in facilitating three companies owned by a Russian and two Ghanaian nationals, Apogee FZC, Creed Energy Limited and Ultimate Beige Logistics, on allegations of importing and selling petroleum products in The Gambia worth $30m without paying taxes and paying Kickbacks worth Millions of dalasi to interested individuals.

The Managing Director of Gampetroleum, Yarro Jallow, the principal architect who introduced the First Lady to the Russian petroleum Cartel Syndicate, made a false statement during his testimony at the 22nd August hearing at the National Assembly of the joint committee session. He withheld vital evidence from the members of parliament, avoiding responsibility and covering for the alleged criminal action he and his colleagues had facilitated and got rewarded for.

The public must bear in mind that none of the witnesses facing the Parliamentary committee would deny the fact of the crime that has occurred because the evidence is placed before them that proves the criminal activities they have facilitated, causing a considerable amount of financial loss to the government and causing further damage to the vehicles due to substandard fuel they allowed to the market, which is polluting the environment and detrimental to public health and overall undermining the integrity of the energy supply sector to the extent that some airlines are refusing to refuel in the Gambia.

Hence, they can’t refute the Financial Intelligence Unit’s startling Intelligence report, which provided material evidence from the company’s financial transactions after they conducted a comprehensive financial auditing of the companies involved in the criminal Syndicate.

Most of the witnesses appearing before the Parliamentary Committee would try to avoid taking responsibility as that would expose the truth (their culpability) and leave the questions on their motive for facilitating the hideous crime, which can be only two things: benefiting financially or succumbing to pressure from the statehouse. It can’t be mere negligence of duty.

It is worth considering how three companies owned by foreign nationals with substandard petroleum products destined for Ghana ended up in the Gambia, offloading the single cargo that was meant for the Ghanaian market and continuing to operate an illegal syndicate that made millions of dollars without paying a single dime as tax. Only for the authorities to become aware after Creed Energy felt robbed by the syndicate of its interests and responsibility reverted to JT Energy, a company registered by Ebrima Jabbie, an alleged agent of the First Lady.

THE BEHIND THE SCENES DETAILS!

We want the public to pay attention to the cornicle timeline of events, which exposes the metrology of the Criminal Syndicate, providing evidence of the criminal nature of how they initiated the operation in Early 2023 without any issues raised until mid-2023 when Mr Clement felt disgruntled, leading to Open Gambia recieving the information first publishing the scandal Mid-September 2023, which triggered the Financial Intelligence, Police investigations in Mid October 2023 and the Statehouse intervention with a policy paper from the energy ministry to legitimise the transactions. After a period of behind-the-scenes dealing with the case in Early December 2023, Mr Clement took legal action against his Syndicate partners by mid-December 2023. Justice Jaiteh heard the Case about twice, and it dragged on. Finally, in January 2024, Apooge FZC registered their company in a shady fashion.

Open Gambia received the following corroborating evidence after reviewing information from multiple contacts within the Oil marketing sector from the beginning of the breakout within the Russian Oil syndicate.

In the early part of 2023, Allegedly, Mr Clement Koranteng of Creed Energy and MD Gam-Petroleum Yarro Jallow laid the foundations for the Russian fuel syndicate’s operation with the help of his Operation Director, Pa Ousman Touray. Mr Clement acted as the Russian company’s sole country representative at the time he came to rescue the Russian Oil company Apogee FZC and their associate, a Ghanaian National, Mr Nana Kofi Amoako Addo, who owns Ultimate Beige Logistics, after months of holding their Oil shipment in the ocean, trying to offload their substandard Oil Cargo in Ghana, and failing, which led to the Russian Syndicate operations in the Gambia.

Mr Clement negotiated with MD Yarro Jalllow on how the syndicate could bring in their Oil Cargo and facilitate the trade, including the cost of oiling the wheels of corrupt officers, without the hindrance of repatriating their funds. MD Jallow realised that the Statehouse has the only authority to facilitate illicit transactions without adverse consequences if detected.

He introduces the First Lady to the deal, but the First Lady cannot directly get involved. She, too, nominated Ebrima Jabbie of JT Energy as an agent to oversee her interest in the Apogee FZE deal. So far, The deal raised over $3 million as a kickback for the First Lady and MD Jallow, designated to receive a D600,000 per month fix. Ebrima Jabbie cut a deal to corner a share of the Malian market. MD Jallow’s entire testimony at the Parliamentary committee is a fabrication to protect himself, the First Lady and the criminal syndicate.

By mid-2023, after a few transactions, the Syndicate had become greedy. It flooded the market with supplies to operate a Cartel, monopolising the petroleum market, forcing most local Oil Marketing companies to purchase their supplies from the Syndicate, and leading many local independent traders to bankruptcy. The increase in funds for the syndicate influenced Mr Clement to demand a larger share of the proceeds, which led to Apogee FZC and Ultimate Beige Logistics cutting Clement out of the Syndicate, ensuring infighting. That’s how information reached Open Gambia after our publications. Financial Intelligence Unit launched an investigation.

In mid-September 2023, the Open Gambia Platform first broke the scandal on Social Media, leading to the FIU launching an investigation. This snowballed into the police arrest of Mr Clement of Creed Energy, Mr Nana Kofi Amoako Addo of Ultimate Beige Logistics, and Mr Aurimass of Apooge FZC In. They were all released without charge after Apooge handed D26 million to the Inspector General of Police Abdoulie Sanyang to suppress the case. With the intervention of the First Lady, the case was buried.

In mid-October 2023, when the FIU launched its investigation, and the police arrested some of the Syndicate company members, the Statehouse intervened by instructing the then Energy Minister Abdou Jobe to introduce a new policy with far-reaching consequences. This policy changed the procedures of the Oil Market and raised concerns about potential tax revenue losses to the Gambian economy. The new policy seemed tailor-made to legitimise APOGEE FZC’s position.

It was revealed that the Finance Ministry or GRA didn’t challenge the abuse of authority in Mr Jobe’s action because it is illegal for the Energy Minister to draw out a financial policy and deprive the state of needed revenue when only the Finance Minister has the authority to draw one. The Finance Ministry and GRA Senior Manager should have been aware of the situation and the abnormality of the Energy Minister’s illegal intervention; they failed in their duty of not challenging the Ministry of Energy due to the First Lady’s influence.

By Early December 2023, When Apooge FZC failed to compensate Mr Clement of Creed Energy, Mr Clement was forced to bring lawsuits in the high court against Access Bank Gambia Limited for transferring a sum of GMD 339,963,424.01 from its account to the account of Ultimate-Beige Logistics Gambia Company Limited without its instructions; Mr Aurimas Steiblys, a representative of the Russian company Apogee FZC, directed Access Bank to establish subaccounts under the name Creed Energy/Apogee FZC in GMD, USD and EURO, designating himself the exclusive signatory for these subaccounts.

Mr Clement’s lawsuit allowed GRA Senior management to redeem themselves in the eye of the public, pretending not to know about the criminal syndicate, which avoided paying taxes. Because the GRA agents stationed at the Gampetroleum depot were compromised in enabling the syndicate to operate without paying the taxes due to their self-interest. The GRA Intelligence Until failed in its duty, too, not to detect the massive revenue loss from a particular station like the Gampetroleum depot. The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) filed a motion (Later dismissed) seeking the High Court’s order to include them as an essential party in the legal proceedings, arguing that they possess a direct interest in the subject matter, which the case outcome will significantly impact.

It will be of interest for the Parliamentary Committee to enquire if GRA has taken any other actions to recover the taxes owed by the criminal Syndicate and if they have held the agents stationed at the GAMPETROLEUM depot and their Intelligence Unit accountable for their dereliction of duty or complicit in committing a crime. It will not be enough for the GRA Managing Director to state to the Parliamentary committee that they were unaware of the criminal syndicate that deprives the state of vast amounts of taxes.

Mid-December 2023, after the initial hearing of Mr Clements’s lawsuit at the high court, the case was heard about twice and then dragged. Then Abdoulie Sanyang, former IGP, hounded Mr Clement with repeated arrests and threats to discourage him from continuing the trial lawsuit at the high court against the criminal syndicate and stop him from continuing to blow the whistle by briefing the press. The overwhelming pressure from the police led Mr Clements to leave the Gambia and relocate to the UAE.

The Parliamentary Committee should inquire why the police failed to prosecute the case, causing all the suspects to roam freely in and outside of the Gambia, and why nothing is heard about the lawsuit Mr Clement launched at the high court under Justice Ebrima Jaiteh. The facts can only determine that state authorities tasked to protect our interests conspired with a criminal syndicate protected by the influence of the First Lady for their selfish interests.

In January 2024, Soon after, the criminal syndicate managed to control the situation by having the police scare Mr Clements away and placing the lawsuit dormant. They rushed to regularise the criminal syndicate by registering it as a company in the shadiest fashion. The registrar of companies testified at the Parliamentary Committee hearing that the syndicate incorporated Apoogee in the UAE, which holds 99 per cent shares, and the same Aurimas Steiblys, who was all along operating the syndicate as the only partner in APOGEE Limited Gambia, owns 1 per cent.

The Parliamentary Committee should not allow the criminal syndicate to apply this latest arrangement to hoodwink them into legitimising the illegal operation they carried out for a year. They have proven not worthy of trust; their monopoly in the Oil Marketing sector has wholly destabilised the industry, bankrupting the Independent Gambian OMC and flooding our market with poor-quality petrol products.

The Parliamentary Committee investigation has presented the criminal Syndicate with another obstacle they only hope to overcome with the influence of the First Lady, who’s using Deputy Speaker Sidi Njie, who controls the speaker, to undermine the committee from unveiling the truth. The public follows the deliberations in Parliament while history is being made, and accountability is about to be recorded, too.

Your support means the world to us! Please follow our page to keep up with our latest posts, and don’t forget to hit that like button and share our content with your friends. Thank you for being a part of the OPEN GAMBIA PLATFORM community! Article contributed by ANON on 28th August 2024! Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheOpenGambiaPlatform!

You can now write for the Open Gambia Platform, share information anonymously, and join the community. Please share your stories!