The announcement of the defection of these youth was made at a UDP youth conference in the village of Tanji, a few kilometers outside the Gambian capital. The celebratory mood was short-lived when a mass arrest of those in attendance was conducted by the police. All, except the youth leader, were later released following an uproar from opposition supporters and political activists. The youth leader, Ebrima Solo Sendeng, is currently in court charged with giving false information to a public officer.
Musa Sheriff covered the gathering at Tanji where the 19 youth defected to the opposition UDP. It is for this reason that he was arrested, and currently in jail pending arraignment. He is expected to be charged with publishing false news. The regime is under pressure from the citizenry because of the inept handling of a once thriving economy which was the envy of the sub-region.
The youth formed the base support of the Jammeh regime since he seized power illegally - a support that has been dwindling with the rise in the unemployment figures, a worrying development for the dictatorship. The kids have finally caught on to the scam perpetuated by a rogue regime whose only interest is a small circle of business associates of Yaya Jammeh. Corruption, under Jammeh, is at the highest level ever recorded in post-Independent Gambia. This is a regime that seized power under the pretext that they were to save The Gambia by stamping out corruption.
