By: Kemo Kanyi
Constitutional lawyer, Lamin J. Darboe has argued that the Janneh Commission has no legal authority to sell assets belonging to the former President Yahya Jammeh.
He says that the commission is only mandated by the constitution to preserve the assets but not to sell them.
He made the argument on SUNU REEW program aired by Eye Africa TV on Wednesday. He says that even in a case where they are directed by the president, they should not have done so, citing legal conflict in the action.
The constitutional lawyer reiterates that the point that everybody needs to note is that the Janneh Commission is not mandated to sell anything because it has no legal authority.
“The president had no authority to tell the Janneh Commission to sell anything. But I don’t believe the president told them to sell in any case,” Darboe remarks. “Section 202 (2)(D) of the Constitution states clearly that the Janneh Commission has a mandate to preserve the properties that they were dealing with.”
He outlined that Section 201 of the Constitution gives the Janneh Commission equivalent powers that the High Court has, which means it has a lot of power. He emphasizes that the only power that is significant as far as the assets are concerned is the preservation, not selling.
The respected human rights lawyer also stated that it was interim orders that the Janneh Commission had the authority to issue, pointing that those interim orders were not final, so the Commission shouldn’t do anything final with the assets.
“All they have to do is if they feel that someone is in possession of some of those items, then obviously the Commission can issue an order to the person concerned to not do anything with asset either by selling it, or to dissipate it in any way. The Commission can issue those orders, but it can’t sell,” lawyer Darboe declares.
He explains that the only time the assets can be sold is when the investigators submit their report to the president and the ball is passed on to the executive arm of government, saying that the president can decide with his cabinet in a white paper as to how to proceed. “But the way the commission acted was unbelievable,” he maintained.
