Something “weird” happened at the port of Banjul last night, which prompted reactions and counter reactions from the parties concerned, FREEDOM NEWSPAPER CAN REVEAL. A vessel carrying sugar, said to be belonging to GAMFOODS, was allowed to berth (anchor) at the port of Banjul, ahead of other vessels, even though there were other vessels, which had arrived before the said vessel. The vessel’s name is ABK TRADER. OBL is the agent handling the said vessel in Banjul. One Assan Hydara, is the is said to be the Operations Manager for OBL.
GAMFOODS is a Gambian Lebanese owned company. The access Gambia website says “Gam Food Trading is a wholesale importer and distributor of various basic food commodities like sugar (approx 50 container loads / 1,350 metric tons), rice, tinned tomato puree and vegetable cooking oil. They sell short grain and long grain white rice in 20 kilo and 50 kilo bags which have been imported from various countries in east and south Asia.”
As reported above, the ship carrying the sugar consignment, is represented by OBL. OBL has its local shipping agents. Ous Boy and his friend Jobs are the local agents for OBL, while Hydara serves as its Operations Manager.
“This is exactly what happened. When we went to the berthing meeting, there was already 2 bulk vessel which arrived before the sugar vessel, but as per harbor, they said things are out of their hands because state house interfered…normal berthing is conducted first come, first serve basis, but the sugar vessel is a different case. It has been given a special preference,” a source, who reached us has alleged.
“ The total cargo is 27,000 bags of sugar. Out of the 27,000 bags of sugar, President Barrow is going to receive 2,000 bags of sugar. It is a gift from the importer,” he further alleged.
GAMFOODS Sales Managing Director Abass Akar, has denied the allegations contained in this report. We spoke to him via phone on Saturday. Akar says there was no iota of truth in the said claims made by our source. He maintained that it is wrong and misleading for anyone to claim that his company has plans to donate or had donated 2000 bags of sugar to the President Adama Barrow.
Akar has also disputed the number of bags of sugar that our source had claimed was in the vessel. Akar debunked claims that there are 27,000 bags of sugar in his shipment.
“It is more than that. It is 150,000 bags; it is 8000 pounds. If this vessel was not here, the price of sugar would have gone up to D1,400, D1,500 dalasis. So, the consumer will suffer. The Trade Ministry acted; they said, it is better to prioritize this vessel so that people will not suffer. You know that in the month of Ramadan sugar is a necessity. Today the price of sugar is about D1,250. It was D1,300 last week,” he said.
He has also denied claims that the State House had allegedly interfered with the berthing of the said sugar container ship at the ports.
“That information is false. We have not donated 2000 bags of sugar to the President; Whoever is telling you that; is not telling you the truth. That is a figment of his own imagination. I can tell you 100 percent that the information is false,” Akar remarked.
He added that it was the Trade Ministry, who ensured that their shipment was given a priority for timely delivery because there is sugar shortage in The Gambia, ahead of Monday’s Ramadan season. He says prior to the intervention of the Trade Ministry; a meeting was held at the Trade Ministry two weeks ago to discuss the issue of sugar sale among others.
“Do you know that there is a shortage of sugar in the market? Ramadan is Monday. We rushed to the Ministry of Trade and asked them if they could help facilitate our ship to be allowed to berth. They acted based on our request to have the vessel anchored at the port,” he said.
Akar also says GAMFOODS is a Gambian company and not a Lebanese company. He told me that he is a Gambian Lebanese national.
Earlier on, we contacted The Gambian government spokesman Ebrima G Sankareh, who told was that he was in Ethiopia, attending a world press Freedom Day conference. Sankareh says he was invited by UNESCO to take part in the forum. He said he wouldn’t be back in The Gambia, until Sunday evening. He therefore referred us to Information Minister Ebrima Sillah, who wasted no time to attending to our journalistic query.
“I spoke to the Managing Director of The Gambia ports authority, who in fact is on an overseas mission and this is what he told me: Yes there are three Cargo ships that is currently at the ports authority. First, there was this this Chinese vessel, that was carrying the materials for the bridges and the roads in the URR; it was given priority because they needed to ensure that it was offloaded so that those materials could get to Basse or other parts of URR on time. That Cargo vessel, I think spent about six or seven days; that took a lot of time; it caused some kind of congestion. Now, yesterday, when that particular Cargo, Chinese vessel was released; they had to give priority to the vessel containing the sugar because of Ramadan. This is what the Managing Director told me,” Information Minister Sillah tells Freedom Newspaper.
“They have what they called a berthing arraignment at The Gambia Ports Authority. They give priority to naval vessels for security reasons; when they come, they are given opportunity to anchor despite other ships that are on the waiting; they also give cruise ships; those are on the second list, in case those ones come, they are given priority to anchor because those ones normally spend twelve hours at the harbor; then the third on the priority list are the container vessels; the container ships because those ones normally spend about 36 hours; and then the fourth one on the priority list is the Cargo ships that normally spends six days. So, in this case, according to the Managing Director of The Gambia ports authority, immediately the Chinese vessel was released; they had to allow the vessel containing sugar, and flour because of Ramadan; because what they are trying to do is to ensure that these goods get to the consumers on time to avoid any price hikes. He was telling me that there was no preferential opportunity given to this particular vessel that contained the sugar and flour,” Sillah added.
Sillah also says the ports MD had denied that pressure was mounted on them from the State House to compel them to allow the GAMFOODS vessel to dock at the port. He says the State House has no hands on the said vessel.
“Also, I asked whether the President of The Gambia called them to interfere; to force them on this Cargo, he said, they have not received any communication from the State House; it was just a priority given to this particular container vessel because Ramadan is coming,” Sillah remarked.
“I also called the President, he said, he is in fact not even aware that there is a sugar Cargo ship at The Gambia ports authority. Ha laughed about it. He said, I am not even aware that there is a Cargo ship at The Gambia ports authority containing sugar. So, I don’t know where this allegation came from. So, he gave me the number of his harbor manager, one Mr. Kulay Manneh, who in fact I was also trying to confirm this kind of details from him, but his line was repeatedly engaged, but knowing that you are working on a deadline, I said, let me, just call you; I directly talk to the MD himself Mr. Jobarteh, who confirmed and gave me all these details,” Sillah told me.
Written By Pa Nderry M’Bai
Editors note: Information Minister Ebrima Sillah is our guest for tomorrow’s prime time Leral show. Stay tuned.
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