If you could all recall, we were all some few years ago made to believe by President Jammeh that Rambo who was jailed as a co-conspirator in the treason case involving Lang Tombong and Co, had escaped from the Mile 2 Prisons. At the time, press release after press release urged people to inform authorities if this man is sighted anywhere. Of course wondering minds began thinking how could this happen because an escape from Mile 2 is near impossible and has always been a feat none has succeeded in achieving before. Well, as it turns out, those suspicions and doubts were well grounded for this was no ordinary “escape”, in fact, it was a case of one simply bribing his out of prison by paying none other than the President himself a whooping sum of $1,000,000. Yes, you read it right – one million U.S Dollars!!!
How The Scam Was Executed
As it turns out, there were some very powerful business owners and Lebanese leaders behind the deal to free Rambo who is himself Lebanese and believed to have connections to the Hezbollah gorilla group in Lebanon. The MA Karafi Group, owners of Sheraton and Kafuta Farms, and the Lebanese community based in Gambia did the negotiations. All the charges against Rambo, Lang Tombong Tamba and others were all bogus in the first place because there was no coup plot. Fortunately for Rambo, he had the full backing of this small but powerful community in the country who have all the connections to the regime in power because they are always willing to use money to buy their way into the corridors. Unfortunately for Lang and Co., the amount of money and inducements necessary to get Yaya to even talk about their release was not available, so they continue to languish in Mile 2 as political prisoners. To negotiate the deal, the negotiators put their knowledge of Yaya’s greed and insatiable taste of other people’s properties to work by basically offering him both cash and kind (properties). So in addition to the 1 million dollars cash money given, they also promise Jammeh that the Qataris will build a state-of-the-art multi-purpose complex with a 5 Star hotel, a shopping mall employing over 5,000 people (which was supposed to be built at ITC along the Kombo Coastal Road), and as an added bonus hand over Rambo’s property ‘One Plus One’ at Bertil Harding Highway to Jammeh which he now owns. Yaya and First Lady Zainab Zuma Jammeh were both invited to the venues for the construction to lay the foundation stone. Faturadio’s own Fatou Camara co-coincidentally hosted that event. Many years still on, that construction has not commenced.
When he agreed to the terms, Rambo was then released under the cover of darkness and dropped off at the Sheraton Hotel, from where, with a mask on, taken to the airport and flown to Lebanon through Freetown and Brussels. He was strictly warned to never discuss this case with anybody with the promise that severe retaliations will be taken against the Lebanese community in The Gambia if he tries.
While the Lebanese was released because he was able to bribe his way out, our own Gambian brothers, Lang Tombong and Co. continue to suffer in prison for a crime they never committed in the first place. Travesty of justice at its best.
Source: Faturadio