Senegambia News has confirmed the appointment of Mrs. Awa Bah Sambou, deputy solicitor general and former executive director of the Gambia Competition Commission, to the post of solicitor general and legal secretary to the Attorney General's Chambers.

She is also mandated to oversee the entire Justice Department, pending an official statement on the condition of Justice Minister Marie Saine Firdaus, who is believed to have been taken ill last week. Mrs. Bah Sambou's appointment was effective Tuesday, March 2, 2009.

Mrs. Bah Sambou is the wife of former NIA director Harry Sambou. She was appointed executive director of GPC in 2009, when the commission was established by an Act of Parliament.

Justice Department sources say Mrs. Sambou may replace minister Firdaus whose presentation of the country's human rights records at a UNICEF conference in Geneva, Switzerland, fell below the president's expectation.

Security Chiefs Detained

Senegambia News has also confirmed the detention of former Deputy Chief of Defense Staff, Major General Yakubu Drammeh. He was recently dismissed from the armed forces by president Yahya Jammeh.

General Drammeh, alongside the dismissed cabinet minister, Antouman Saho, former National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA) executive director, Ebrima Bun Sanneh, are being questioned in detention at the headquarters of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA.

However, the alleged illicit drug baron at the center of a major drug scandal that led to the dismissal of police chief Ensa Badjie, Sinlaba Samateh, is being held at the Mile II State Central prison.

Bun Sanneh, Antouman Saho and Sinlaba Samateh are all suspected of involvement in trafficking illicit drugs into the country. Samateh, the alleged drug baron, was believed to have been given special protection by former NDEA boss, Sanneh, and former police chief Ensa Badjie.

The scandal also led to the dismissal of 23  other police officers. 

The NIA is investigating the elaborate network of security chiefs believed to have helped Sinlaba Samateh in exchange for benefits.

Deputy director of NDEA, Karamo Bojang and Ousman Sanneh, commissioner of operations, have all been dismissed, a statement from the president's office said on Friday.

Lamin Kaba Bajo, the newly appointed minister for fisheries and water resources, was given an additional portfolio of religious affairs - a department that was under the local government and lands ministry.