The Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), the Arusha, Tanzania-based has addressed a letter to the President of the Gambia Bar Association disassociating itself from statements and actions taken by the African Bar Association (ABA) following yesterday strange meeting between ABA and the outgoing Gambian dictator who is defying the decision of the Economic Community of West African States's (ECOWAS) Abuja Summit Resolution demanding that Jammeh vacate the presidency to make way for President-elect Adama Barrow.
Mr. Barrow won the December 1st presidential elections with a 43% of the votes to Jammeh's 40%, who conceded the following day only to reverse his decision by claiming voter fraud. The elections conducted under the supervision of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) were universally acclaimed as free, fair and credible and which has been endorsed by all of Gambia's principal bi-lateral and multi-lateral partners, in addition to the European Union, the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain and Russia. ECOWAS and the African Union have also endorsed the outcome of the elections.
Despite the universal endorsement of the electoral process, the so-called African Bar Association which we consider here as sidisanneh.blogspot.com as nothing more than a 419 scam operation that appears to be in cahoots with the mercenary judges (principally recruited from Nigeria) who have infested the Gambian judiciary and have succeeded in weaponzing the judiciary into a portent instrument of repression. The actions of the ABA is considered as part of Jammeh's attempt to subvert the will of the Gambian people by getting the Gambia Supreme Court to nullify the results of the elections.
The Supreme Court is headed by a Chief Justice Fagbenle who was appointed by Jammeh and who is not embarrassed and finds nothing unethical or unprofessional to put on the ruling party's colors and campaign in broad daylight for Jammeh during the presidential elections he is about to nullify. CJ Fagbenle has been declared unfit and unqualified to be a Chief Justice. From our end, he's not even qualified to be a court clerk and he should leave the Gambia together with the rest of his compatriots who have contributed, in no small measure, to the current political and judicial malaise that our country faces.
The Gambia's Supreme Court Chief Justice runs an evangelical church on Sundays and a nursery school the rest of the week in addition to other business enterprises. Only in Yaya Jammeh's Gambia.
In disassociating its self from the actions and statements of the African Bar Association, the Pan African Lawyers Association which, according to its website, is the "umbrella association of African lawyers and law societies, and that brings together the continents five regional and fifty-four national lawyers associations." In denouncing the actions and statements of the African Bar Association, PALU stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the president and members of the Gambia Bar Association.
The PALU letter further states "[w]e also support the positions taken by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU) and the United Nations with regard to The Gambia. We look forward to full implementation of the decisions of the ECOWAS Summit held in Abuja, Federal Republic of Nigeria this past Saturday 17th December 2016." [emphasis ours]
The letter further states the African Bar Association position flies in the face of, and contradicts the unanimous position of ECOWAS, AU and UN, ans indeed of PALU. It flies in the face, and contradicts international law. It is, simply put, unlawful."
PALU's letter went further to call the African Bar Association a fraudulent organization which we have characterized in our previous blog post as 419 scam operation. It is sad that out judiciary is filled with such undesirable elements that Jammeh have used, and continue to use, to prey on innocent Gambians - a symbiotic relationship that has prolonged the hardship of my people by a few unscrupulous and criminal elements who have no place in our society. The sooner we put them on the first available flight to Abuja, the better. As far as we are concerned, Jammeh can join them.
