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Gambia IOC Member Says Politics Led to Arrest
Wednesday, 26 January 2011 02:27
ATR - Gambian IOC member Beatrice Allen tells Around the Rings her arrest was politically motivated.
In an email to ATR, Allen, who was arrested Friday and spent the weekend in jail, said the arrest was part of a coordinated effort to "tarnish" her image. She says the election for presidency of the Gambian National Olympic Committee is at the heart of the matter. Allen is the interim president, taking office after former president Lang Tombong Tamba was sentenced to death for his involvement in a coup.
The sports minister, Allen claims, "has been interfering with the process because he has a candidate".
"Abdoulie Touray is standing for the GNOC Presidential elections, and he has promised the Minister of Youth and Sports that if he wins the election he would take George Gomez (the Minister's Uncle) back to the GNOC" she said.
"The Attorney-General, Mr Edu Gomez is George Gomez' cousin, and he is presently prosecuting us. This is like a well-coordinated action to wreck the GNOC and to tarnish my image as an IOC Member."
Originally scheduled for October of last year, the elections have repeatedly been delayed. Allen is not running for the presidency. Touray, former secretary general of the GNOC, and Momodou Dibba, former secretary general of the Gambia Football Association are the announced candidates.
Funding for the Commonwealth Games is another point of contention that Allen says may have led to her arrest, as well as the arrest of Mohammed Janneh and Ousman Wadda the accountant and treasurer respectively of GNOC. They are accused of stealing a little more than $1200 from the GNOC account.
In 2006, the Commonwealth Games Federation issued every federation in the Commonwealth $100,000 to prepare for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The CGF had asked GNOC to explain where the money went.
"We've been analyzing the accounts and we've discovered a lot of mismanagement in the utilization of the funds," she says.
Allen says her investigation into how money for the 2010 Commonwealth Games was spent led to her arrest.
Originally, Allen says she was supposed to spend the week in Central Prisons, but instead she was locked-up at the Banjul Police Station jail. She was bailed out on Monday because "Prosecution told the court that he was not prepared."
She will return to court Feb. 2.
This is not Allen’s first run-in with officials from the government. In a letter from Allen to the IOC written in June, she outlines the government’s efforts to work against her. Allen’s letter was in response to a letter written by the ministry to the IOC and Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa, alleging financial impropriety on behalf of the GNOC.
Allen wrote that she "denied the allegations and explained to them that our payments were mostly to the national federations, salaries, sitting allowances, and monthly allowances to the members of the Executive Committee".
The points of contention the ministry raised to the IOC include allegations of payments to then-President Tomba, and staff arrangements within the GNOC.
"Since I became an IOC Member, I have suffered from the hands of the Bureau and Secretariat. George, Abdoulie Touray and Abou Dandeh made sure that I was marginalized and they tried to stifle every initiative I planned, including "women and sports" programmes (except for the first one I launched)" she claims.
Allen was elected to the IOC in 2006, at the encouragement of U.S. IOC member Anita Defrantz. Allen says her nomination was controversial as it prevented Abou Dandeh NJie, GNOC president at that time, from consideration for the IOC. She serves on three commissions. Coordination Commission for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; Women and Sport; and the Culture and Olympic Education commissions.
Written by Ed Hula III
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Comments
С уважением, Владимир тощаков.
More over when they were in danger of being exposed for ther ineptitude...they would have no hesitation in rhumor mongering and "fingering" there collegues and there sponsors of outlandish charges and missdemenors.
This to apply a smoke screen to hide there own failure...and risk of exposure.
I have to say that Mr Jammeh was not part of this conduct....It was his middle management.
I have no doubt Ms Allen and the two FGM activists are the scapegoats of these conspiricies.
Time and time again it was the Office of The President that came to my rescue.
The weakness here is that Mr Jammeh..has not dropped on this like thunder for the sake of the outside credibility of The Gambia.
Here is an ideal opportunity for him to sanction this appauling conduct.
The situation is often a field day for people who identify with the government, like it is often rampant here in Gambia. First they convince the authority that you are anti, as we call them here, and then when they deal with you no wants to identify with you, for fear of their own safety.
THis is the situation we are in today. Deny it because it doesn't affect you, but God is witness to the reality, and that is what is important.
It should be a joint action. Both Judges and Magistrates should start throwing out cases from their courts that are not grounded in law. Waisting the court's time is a crime, thus prosecutors that failed to properly investigate cases before going to the courts must face the consequences of their incompetence in law.
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