Rebuttal: An Open Response to Former Attorney General Abubacarr M. Tambadou

Gunjuronline.com
28 minutes ago
5 min read

By Musa Bassadi Jawara

Mr. Tambadou, you forwarded your “Open Letter to Mustapha K. Darboe” dated May 18, 2026 to me directly. In the spirit of transparency and public accountability, I respond. The nation is entitled to more than one voice when matters of justice, reputation, and public trust collide. This is that response — professional, academic, and unflinching.

The issues you raised in your letter, in their entirety, are presented as conclusions of fact. With respect, they remain your opinion. A personal refutation, however detailed, does not constitute legal exoneration. Only a competent court of law, after testing evidence under oath, can determine guilt, innocence, or liability. Until then, your assertions are arguments, not verdicts.

You cannot conclude that the matters you addressed exonerate you. Exoneration is a judicial function. It requires due process, cross-examination, and final judgment. None of these issues have been adjudicated in a court of law. On what grounds, legal or otherwise, do you declare your functions and actions as Attorney General to have been beyond violation? The public record remains open, and the legal record remains unsettled.

Let us remind the record: After _The Republic’s_ April 2025 publication, there was national outcry. The GALA movements took to the streets alleging foul play. The reaction was so sustained that President Adama Barrow delivered a national address. He commissioned two inquiries — the National Assembly Select Committee and the Auditor General’s Office. These were not the actions of a state satisfied that nothing wrong had occurred.

The Auditor General was unceremoniously removed from office while conducting his inquiry. That investigation was never completed. The Gambian people never received its findings. Who knows what those conclusions would have been? To claim vindication while a constitutionally mandated audit was aborted is premature at best, and misleading at worst.

One inquiry did conclude. The National Assembly Select Committee on the Jammeh assets issued initial recommendations. Among them: that a criminal investigation be pursued against you. The executive branch has yet to act on those findings. They remain on the table, unresolved. On what basis then, Mr. Tambadou, do you assert closure?

Under what grounds — legal, political, personal, or otherwise — do you base your demand for a public apology within 14 days, coupled with the threat of legal action? You held a tax-funded position as Attorney General of the Republic of The Gambia. Your actions were public acts, subject to public scrutiny. Scrutiny is not defamation. Accountability is not harassment.

You speak of reputational harm to yourself and your family. Public office carries public consequence. When one serves the Republic, one’s conduct becomes the Republic’s business. If allegations arise, the remedy is not private threats to journalists, but public transparency through established institutions. Courts exist precisely to separate reputation from rumor.

It may well be that the allegations against you are credible. It may well be that they are not. But only a competent court of law will get to the bottom of it. Preemptive declarations of innocence, coupled with demands for retraction, risk substituting personal outrage for due process. That is not how the rule of law functions.

Mr. Tambadou, by issuing this letter, you may have done yourself irreparable legal damage. The statement is ill-advised, inappropriate, and legally repugnant. In attempting to climb out of a hole, you have dug further into a ditch. Legal practice teaches restraint until adjudication. Your letter abandons that principle.

The assets in question remain mired in what the public perceives as skullduggery, secrecy, and corruption of the worst form. You were head of the judiciary’s administrative arm as Attorney General. How can you separate and clear your name from this “monstrosity” while no findings have made it to court? To declare innocence before trial is not courage. It is ignorance of basic legal practice.

It is not _The Republic_ that should apologize within your specified timeframe. Given the unresolved inquiries, the uncompleted audit, and the pending parliamentary recommendations, it is you, sir, who should issue an apology to the Gambian people. Public office demands public humility, especially when the public is still waiting for answers.

This country has run off track since the end of autocratic rule. Corruption has worsened, and it is the poor and underprivileged who pay the price. The elites who have exacerbated these appalling conditions must be ashamed of themselves. They must seek redemption and apologize — to the Gambian people, and to our Maker, Allah.

You invoked your role in deleting criminal defamation from our Criminal Code. That was commendable. But press freedom does not mean freedom from criticism of power. Investigative journalism, even when flawed, is not a crime. The remedy for false reporting is not intimidation. It is evidence, presented in court. “Et tu, Brute?” is poetry. Due process is law.

You sent us your letter. We respond with fairness, professional distance, and intellectual candor. The Gambia deserves truth, not theater. The world is watching how we handle power, past and present. If you believe you are right, test it in court. If the state believes you are wrong, prosecute it there. But do not ask the public to serve as your jury, or journalists to serve as your judge. The rule of law demands more.

Let me speak plainly, Mr. Tambadou, as a citizen who walks the same streets where mothers queue for rice and graduates queue for jobs that do not exist. While hospitals beg for bandages, the National Assembly heard testimony about multi-million Dalasi properties — land, buildings, and luxury vehicles — allegedly sold for chicken change. Deals that public reports suggest were carved up and shared among a chosen corruption ring. Tracts in the TDA valued in tens of millions, luxury SUVs from the former presidency, all allegedly offloaded at prices that insult the intelligence of a market woman. And in the face of that, you write to demand an apology? That is not just tone-deaf. It is absolute nonsense. It is blatant mockery of the very people who paid your salary. The poor did not ask for Shakespeare. They asked for justice. The underprivileged did not ask for Latin. They asked for bread.

So no, Mr. Tambadou. The apology is not yours to collect. It is yours to give. Give it to the farmer whose subsidy vanished. Give it to the nurse who buys gloves from her own pocket. Give it to the youth who left on a boat because the “new Gambia” became the old Gambia with a fresh coat of paint. You served the Republic. The Republic does not serve you. If you believe in your innocence, welcome the courtroom. If you believe in your legacy, welcome the audit. But do not mistake silence for vindication, and do not dress legal peril as moral victory. The Gambia buried dictatorship to bury impunity too. We are not going back. We are not going to be silent. And we are certainly not going to apologize to power when power still owes the people an explanation. Allah sees. The people remember. History writes in ink.

Musa Bassadi Jawara

Economist & Author

Bintou’s Point, Kerewan