According to the letter, the pair claimed to be acting under the directive of His Excellency, President Adama Barrow. The report alleged that they had moved vehicles, removed engines, and transferred parts to other vehicles,” including four tractors allegedly taken to a private garage in Bundung.
When confronted, Sergeant Jagne exploded with defiance.
“All that is false!” he declared. “If Saidy Barra wanted the truth, he would have come to me first. The truth will come and it will come from this committee.”
Pressed further, Jange made an admission
Stating that “for the cannibalizing, to cannibalize those government vehicles I did it.”
“You did cannibalize government vehicles?” Counsel asked.
“Yes,” he said simply. “I took parts from one vehicle to repair another to put it on the road for use. But I never touched the former president’s vehicles.”
To Jagne, cannibalisation was an act of service, not theft. “When a vehicle’s engine is dead, and another one has life, you take the good engine and make one working car. That is not stealing. That is helping government work,” he explained
The 2017 letter described a chaotic workshop scene; engines ripped out, tractors missing, and vehicles stripped bare all before any official handover. It stated that Jange and Susso had forcefully removed the previous occupant, Mr. Siaka Jammeh, without any formal transfer or documentation.
“In any workplace like Kotu, a proper handing-over note is necessary,” the letter emphasised. “But that was not done.”
When this was read to him, Jagne stressed that “Those are lies.” He insisted. “I have tangible evidence, real people, living people who can speak the truth. Those are more tangible than papers.”
He claimed that all the vehicles he worked on were government-owned, parked for auctioning, and that he was simply following orders to keep them functional. He denied any knowledge of who authorised the auctions or how the assets were managed.
The counsel reminded him sternly that misleading the committee could have consequences.
“Anything I did, I say I did it, but this one I cannot recall,” Jange replied.
