Former President Yahya Jammeh
BANJUL, March 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh “orchestrated the embezzlement of nearly $1bn of public funds”, a report by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) claims.
Jammeh, currently in exile in Equatorial Guinea, has not responded to the allegations, the OCCRP says.
The team of investigative reporters say they reviewed thousands of documents from the course of jammeh’s 22-year rule, which ended in 2017 after little-known presidential challenger Adama Barrow defeated him at the polls.
Gambia’s Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou had already accused Jammeh of unlawfully withdrawing $50m from state funds over a 10-year period.
But the OCCRP say the total figure is much higher. — NNN-AGENCIES