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In Spendthrift Zeinab Jammeh’s Mega-Venture
“BAZZI’S NEPHEW FACILITATED THE POTOMAC PURCHASE”
As Fatou Bah-Barrow’s D33M Transfer Remains a Mystery
By Ebrima Papa Colley (Gambiano)
It was some time in 2011 when a nephew of Muhammad Bazzi, a former Jammeh business associate played a key role in making one of Zeinab Jammeh’s wildest dreams come true— not just a house, but one of stature even in the American affluential standard.
The nephew, for some reason, bears an elusive last name, even to sources that met him, Zeinab Jammeh, and former president Yahya Jammeh. “He is a Lebanese. He married Aisha, Zeinab Jammeh’s cousin. He was very influential in the purchase of the house,” a family source told forGambia News.
The house, located on Bentcross Drive in Potomac, Maryland, was sold by a former NBA player for Washington Wizards, Calbert Cheaney to “My J Family Trust” on September 29th 2011, according to Patch, a merger of Hale Global and AOL Inc., Maryland tax records say.
Several reports earlier hinted a link to Mariam Jammeh Trust (Former President, Jammeh’s daughter and first child). The same reports quoted a tune of $3.5 million U.S Dollars as being spent by the Jammeh’s through Bazzi’s nephew, Ahmad. “Let them contact the banks in the U.S,” a source challenged.
Another name of significance to the luxurious purchase is Fatou Njie, a former aide to Zeinab Jammeh, sources continue. “Fatou came and lied to the Janneh commission, denying that she knows anything about Zeinab’s financial excesses. Fatou was also very influential in the buying of that house,” they noted, adding that “Senior staffers [in the Jammeh administration] were influential in helping Zeinab loot our country.”
Njie, according reports had earlier been recalled from the Gambia High Commission in Nigeria to serve as deputy permanent secretary, ministry of foreign affairs in the Barrow administration.
Another area of anger touched by our sources underscored the private jets Zeinab used to hire to commute between Gambia and the international world, but especially the United States. The fueling and landing fees measured to six figures in U.S dollars, a voice said. “Zeinab wanted a house in the U.S as a base for herself and family [her mother and father’s side].
She had been wanting it for a long time for no reason other than coming to the U.S with her family for luxury. Imagine, Zeinab never had a single house in The Gambia,” a source said Sunday. It is a God-given truth Zeinab was not alone—Yahya was central in the blame.
Almost a year ago, Fatoumata Ceesay, Vice Chairperson of the Fatoumata Bah-Barrow Foundation (FABB) was rather reticent about a mysterious transfer of $752,544.42 dollars (over D33 million Dalasis) from a Hongkong bank to First Lady Barrow’s United Kingdom Guarantee Trust Bank account. The Barrow administration denied any knowledge of the exact source of transfer in this smart electronic age, coupled with anti-terror funding laws.
Banks in the United States and developed countries require senders to fill some transfer affidavits to conform to such laws. There is no single electronic deposit that can be made to anyone’s account anywhere without the authorities tracing sources. The poor nation of Gambia still waits for so-called “investigations” into a simple electronic deed lingering since 2017.
Speaking to forGambia on conditions of anonymity, a speaker reasoned that both Zeinab and Fatoubah Barrow were First Ladys without the proper mentation to help Gambia achieve anything meaningful. “Fatoubah Barrow thinks dishing out money randomly is what development is about,” goes on an observer.
“She too travels a lot and her travels aren’t announced. Her husband just purchased four hundred cars for the Barrow Youth movement,”he complained adding, “We are from one bad government to another,” the speaker noted.”
Gambia’s per capita income is expected to be $510 by the end of this quarter with a 1.015 billion USD (2017). It is beyond mortal reasoning how these families from sometimes, extremely destitute beginnings end up losing conscience and empathy.
Like it happens in many other third-world countries, they suck the blood of innocent and mostly uneducated citizens of the world like this woman near a thatched-hut in Kerewan Badala, Upper River in the Basse area of The Gambia:
We have all seen former First Lady Tuti Faal address a world body of women in the much-anticipated Beijing ’95 while her then husband was only thirty years old.
This author (growing up) watched Tuti Faal up close in one occasion in Kembujeh as she gave direct and easy access to poor and ordinary Gambian women interact with her at a gathering.
“Tuti, Ntol Maasoto,” (meaning, we are without). She was handing out just T-Shirts to ordinary folks when she visited her native Kembujeh. Not a single security guard stopped Gambians from directly surrounding Tuti for hours amidst local drumming.
