Monday, July 24, 2017

Zainab Jammeh's diplomatic passport must be revoked immediately

Zainab Suma Jammeh 
The wife of the former Gambian dictator, Zainab Suma Jammeh, is currently involved in a diplomatic row in the Senegalese capital of Dakar, in part, because of the laxity with which diplomatic passports are issued and managed.

Zainab Jammeh arrived in Dakar last Thursday from Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea where she and her husband have been granted political asylum after Jammeh lost his presidential bid for a 5th term.

Since January, Zainab Jammeh has been travelling, at least on a couple of occasions, to Dakar on a Gambian diplomatic passport while enjoying all the associated diplomatic courtesies at the airport in Dakar and other destinations.

Her dinner with Amadou Samba and Samuel Sarr at the Beluga Restaurant in Dakar, we have come to learn, was not the first.  The ensuing scandal is still unfolding as details of the meeting begin to emerge.

Apart from the VIP treatment she receives, her visits are kept a secret until her cover was blown with our Facebook post that got the Senegalese press flatfooted, suggesting a degree of complicity by some members of the Senegalese government.

There are officials in Banjul, as well, who are equally complicit in allowing this international jet-setter who is more interested in using her diplomatic status to amass wealth by engaging in activities unbecoming a former First Lady at the expense of Gambia and the Gambian people.

As she embroiled in a scandal that will be subject of future blog posts, the Gambian officials in Banjul responsible for allowing her to continue enjoying the privileges associated with traveling around on a diplomatic passport must take full responsibility of the events unfolding in Dakar because they fail to revoke her diplomatic passports.

Who else, in Jammeh's former entourage, is traveling around the globe on diplomatic passport who is not entitled to one?  Is Amadou Samba traveling on Gambian diplomatic passport?  If so, it should also be revoked immediately, together with Zainab Suma Jammeh's, and anyone else not entitled to be in possession of one.  They should all be traveling on ordinary passports provided they are eligible to be in possession of one.