By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Unimpeachable sources nestled within the corridors of state power report that errant Gambian diplomat, Lamin Sabi Sanyang has been axed by his so-called brother and mentor, autocratic Gambian leader, Yahya Jammeh. Reveals a senior Foreign Ministry official who begged strict confidentiality, Sanyang’s sacking comes directly from the President at closing time, Thursday January 21, 2009 and on Friday the 22, his fate was sealed with a diplomatic dispatch dismissing him from the services of The Gambia government with immediate effect.

Lamin Sabi Sanyang, sacked

Sanyang’s sacking follows an unusual decision last month, transferring the Washington tenured presidential wheeler-dealer turned diplomatic chess boy to Brussels and his reported belligerence not to leave as instructed. In fact, in what many diplomatic observers call an unprecedented move, Lamin Sabi Sanyang is the only known Gambian diplomat at the level of financial attaché who has been in Washington for a decade; an anomaly many blamed on his Jola connections coupled with his willingness to be a presidential pimp, idly scouting out young American beauty queens for Yahya Jammeh.

 Alhagi Chachai & Deleware beauty queen, Lauren Elizabeth Parkes

Ever since coming to the ill-fated Gambian Consulate a decade ago as financial attaché, this taciturn character quickly settled down creating what many see as an extension of President Jammeh’s fiefdom where government business is reduced to a family affair through deceit, lies and shameless propaganda juxtaposed against an unprecedented scale of voodoo diplomacy where marabouts come before God.

Today, like many of his predecessors most of whom are victims of his alleged marabout prowess, he too is forced to join the ever increasing crowd of Gambian immigrants. Crucially though, his lonely impunity is distance bearing in mind that only last year, after  The Echo chronicled his scandalous financial dealings with the Gambian dictator, he was arrested on New Year’s eve while in Banjul vacationing with Black American beauty queens. He was detained by the country’s most predacious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and then subsequently charged with multiple felonies. Sensing the obvious and highly conscious of the many before him who where left to rot at the Mile II Prisons, Sanyang wrote an apology letter to the President promising to work even under “subservient conditions”. That shameful letter from a public servant was published by the Gambian Daily Observer newspaper, the President’s own paper. Apology was accepted, all criminal charges dropped and Sanyang reinstated and even elevated to the position of Visa Councilor; the first such position in the country’s diplomatic history. Like the proverbial old lion returning to its den, he jetted back to Washington, DC ever loyal to the dictator and assuming once again the powers of de factor Ambassador without whom nothing works at the Consulate, a notoriety he damn well relishes.

For now though, speculations are wild in The Gambia, if the dude once deemed the untouchable diplomatic bulldozer will apologize yet again or move on with some pride at least this time around. Curiously though, there are insinuations and wild innuendoes in Banjul that Sanyang who brags about a reservoir of information and secretes about Jammeh’s dirty laundry may unleash potentially damaging information for which we will be most willing to convey in The Echo. Better still, he may be willing to share that information as he transitions to normal civilian life in the US or as he maneuvers to access avenues to maintain legality in this country. Many wonder what becomes of his father’s fate, Alhagi Momodou Sanyang, considered the most powerful civil servant in The Gambia and who according to reliable sources, has vowed that his marabouts will undo whatever ills were unleashed against his son. “We are all Jola from the south and we will see what happens next; no matter how big a tenteng is, a tenteng can cover it” Momodou Sanyang is alleged to have told his colleagues at The Gambia Radio and TV where this high school dropout, continues to wield political gravitas. What is not clear is, to whom Sanyang’s threatening remarks are directed but in this war of the titans, we will continue to monitor developments and allow things to take their natural course.

Lamin Bajo, Gambia's Ambassador to Iran

As Lamin Sabi Sanyang, the only known serving Gambian diplomat with a house in Silver Spring, Maryland, readies for the new life, rogue diplomat, Ebrima J. T Kujabie continues to represent The Gambia as Charge d’Affaires pending the confirmation of Lamin Kaba Bajo as the new Ambassador to Washington, DC, himself, a very quiet and respectful character with a wealth of information about atrocities committed by the Jammeh government. In particular, Lamin K. Bajo was Interior Minister when his colleague, Finance Minster, Ousman Koro Cessay was brutally murdered and his remains burnt out in his ministerial Mercedes Benz in the summer of 1995. Just a little later, the junta’s spokesman, Captain Ebou Jallow defected to the United States; Bajo became spokesman of the most brutal regime in West Africa. During that one and a half year transition to multi-party democracy; 1995-1996, Lamin K. Bajo presided over the Interior Ministry when civilians were arrested in the wee hours of the night and political enemies, real or perceived, tortured behind the harrowing walls of Mile II Prisons. Yet in each occasion, Bajo zealously defended the regime or in other matters, he treated citizens’ legitimate concerns with shameful silence, an all too familiar trademark of the Jammeh administration. Today, he represents The Gambia in Iran for some very obvious reasons-he is a confidant of the dictator dating back to their times as gendarmerie officers in the defunct Gambia National Gendarmerie and having served as Interior and Foreign Minister when mass arrests and murders as well as state orchestrated disappearances were rife, one sees evidence of a willing accomplice in all the nefarious activities associated with the Jammeh regime. As a former soldier, he was the right pick to represent The Gambia in a rogue nation and ever since his arrival there, he has negotiated for the deployment of Iranian commandos to The Gambia, the clandestine training of Gambian militia in Kanilai as well as the reported mining of a buffer zone measuring several kilometers in the Kanilai area.

Paradoxically, as the United States and the international community continue to deal with Iran as she threatens to go nuclear, the Gambia government finds it very comfortable to dine with the Iranian leader and in the midst of this diplomatic jigsaw, Lamin K. Bajo is the ideal tool to shape the Gambia’s foreign policy, albeit foolishly.