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| Yankuba Colley |
The national mobilizer of the ruling party is the third member of the Jammeh regime to call for murder and assassination of Gambians either because the regime does approve of one's lifestyle or because you are opposed to the regimes policies.
The call to behead gays and lesbians was first made by Jammeh in 2008 when he threatened to expel gays and lesbians from The Gambia or face the ultimate punishment.
Yankuba Colley, the Mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council and mobilizer of the ruling party, has stepped into the anti-gay debate by advocating death, murder, assassination of gays and lesbians.
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| Dr. Baba Ceesay |
In June, a similar call was made by a radical Muslim cleric who called for the execution of opponents of the regime. Targeted killings of this sort are permissible under sharia law.
The national mobilizer of the ruling party was reacting to the recently passed anti-gay bill by the National Assembly that defines "aggravated homosexuality" as someone entering into a gay relationship with another under the age of 18 or an HIV infected individual entering a gay relationship. The criminal code will reflect it as a crime punishable up to life imprisonment.
The national mobilizer made the gory statements in an interview with The Standard, a local newspaper. The call for violence against Gambians whose lifestyle happens to be different, but still protected under the constitution is going unabated and may be officially-sanctioned. Yankuba Colley is a high ranking member of the regime whose statements are usually reflectively of the regime's thinking.
A worrying trend in The Gambia is the islamization of an otherwise secular state which Jammeh is actively supporting using surrogates to back his argument that sharia law in an integral part of the daily lives of Gambians because the majority are Muslims, therefore the citizens should accept the live under it. In advancing his warped argument, he conveniently omits the fact that there is a substantial number of Christians and other non-Muslim faiths who call themselves Gambians.
Mr. Colley's reaction was apparently provoked by the international outcry and the volume of petitions that have being streaming into State House from Amnesty International, U.S. Embassy and numerous NGOs across the globe urging Yaya Jammeh not to sign the bill that was passed by the National Assembly. The bill which is presently on his desk must be signed by Monday 29th September for it to become law.
The religious and political extremism has been on the rise with the increasing awareness of the general population of the failure of the regime to uplift them from the poverty and destitution that have resulted after twenty years of dictatorship. Unemployment has been on the rise, especially youth unemployment which is now hovering over 70%.
Yaya Jammeh is expected to return to Banjul over the weekend. All eyes will be on him to see if the signs the bill into law. He made no reference to the pending bill in his United Nations speech.
