Gambia: ECOWAS fact finding mission made modest progress, Jammeh bars Ibn Chambers from meeting

Jammeh in white,L.  Sirleaf ,Buhari, R, Mahama and Koroma

Initial reports reaching us following the conclusion of the ECOWAS presidential fact finding mission led by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Chairman of ECOWAS are not encouraging.  

The rest of the delegation that met with Jammeh included Presidents Buhari of Nigeria, Koroma of Sierra Leone and outgoing President Mahama of Ghana who lost his bid for second term.

The meeting with Jammeh, according to sources, did not go as well as initially hoped.   After receiving his guests in his office, he left them seated for a long time before he joined them in an abbreviated meeting, suggesting that Jammeh has no intention of stepping down to allow the legitimate leader of the Gambia, H.E. Adama Barrow, to assume the presidency.  

By all indications, Jammeh do not intend to respect the will of the Gambian voters who reject his bid for a 5^th term as president.  Jammeh also displayed a hostile disposition towards his guests by insisting on meeting heads of states only which effectively barred Mohammed Ibn Chambers, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and had to leave Jammeh's office.  

Following his meeting, the members of the delegation drove to the Coco Ocean Hotel where they met with the president-elect and members of the transition team.  As a fact finding mission, the delegation met with all parties with a view to drawing up a set of recommendations designed to resolve the political stalemate.  

A source observed however that all is not lost because “what is more promising is that the delegation encouraged the Coalition to continue with their preparation for the handing over.” The delegation also “urged the supporters of the Coalition to maintain decorum during the process.”

The delegation view the process that they have started as a way forward towards the smooth transfer of power tp President-elect H.E. Adama Barrow.

The next consultative meeting is scheduled for December 17^th 2016 when all issues are to be finalized.

The ECOWAS delegation also met with the embattled Chairman and members of the Independent Electoral Commission.  President  Buhari of Nigeria left earlier than the rest of his colleagues to return to Abuja.          

The Gambia is not Zimbabwe: No power sharing here

Jammeh in Sultan outfit 

The last thing that The Gambia needs is a power sharing arrangement that has failed in Zimbabwe. H.E. Adama Barrow, the President-elect of the Republic of The Gambia won the December 1st presidential elections fair and square and which were internationally proclaimed to be free, fair and credible.

Not only that, but Yaya Jammeh conceded defeat before national and international television audiences by calling the president-elect and committing to, and abiding by the will of the people.  He proceeded in the same phone conversation to assure the President-elect of a smooth transfer of power.

President-elect Barrow will be heading a coalition government of seven opposition parties which, by definition, is a power-sharing arrangement and thus no room for someone like Yaya Jammeh, a proven usurper of power.  

The Gambian people have spoken, voices that were heard loud and clear by Jammeh when he boasted about the "rig-prove system of voting" that his government has embraced and the results of which he assured Gambians he will abide by.

To renege on his word with a view to reversing the verdict of the Gambian voters is not only irresponsible but an act of adventurism that must not be entertained neither by the Coalition nor by the august delegation comprising of four regional Heads of State of Liberia as Chairperson of ECOWAS, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea.  To entertain any proposal that will keep Yaya Jammeh in any capacity in the new political dispensation, including a power sharing arrangement, is to create a dangerous precedence in a continent plagued by dictators like Yaya Jammeh.

The Gambia Bar Association (GBA) has finally stepped into the political arena to lend its voice to what is fast becoming a constitutional coup d'etat that has been in the making for a number of years.  Jammeh anticipated such a scenario when he amended the laws that realigned the electoral calendar by decoupling the presidential from the national assembly elections, creating a 4-month window which he will exploit in the event he miraculously lose his bid for re-election.

The claim by the ruling APRC party to file a complaint with the Supreme Court against the published results by the IEC has been rejected by the GBA and for good reason.  The Supreme Court has not sat since May 2015, the GBA pointed out, for lack of a panel of judges.  The two Gambian judges were fired by Jammeh for reasons known only to him, leaving a lone Nigerian Chief Justice.

To reconstitute a fully complimented Supreme Court would require Jammeh to appoint 4 judges to the Court with less than 60 days left in his term as president.  To impanel judges now for the purposes of considering his party's election petition would not only "be against the principle of natural justice" but would be "fundamentally tainted".  The legal profession has spoken and the voices of its members must be part of the equation.

We have been calling for Jammeh to step down at the end of his current term and not to put up his candidacy for a 5th term as president.  He has occupied the position for 22 years - a position he seized unconstitutionally in 1994  Here he is again, two decades later, trying to unconstitutionally retain power that he lost in a free, fair and credible elections, the results of which have been certified by the Independent Electoral Commission and universally acclaimed.  Jammeh must step down and he must do so now.  

BREAKING: Presidents Johnson Sirleaf, Conde, Koroma to meet with Jammeh in Banjul

Yaya Jammeh 

Sources in Banjul have confirmed that the Chairman of the Economic Commission of West African State (ECOWAS), Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and presidents Koroma of Sierra Leone and Conde of Guinea are planned to be meeting with the outgoing president of The Gambia, Yaya Jammeh to be held in Banjul on Tuesday.  

Readers will recall that we reported that President Conde visited Jammeh early this year to advise him not to run for re-election. You can find the blog post here. 

The three ECOWAS presidents will be joined by a fourth colleague probably President Buhari of Nigeria.  His participation has not yet been confirmed by our sources.

The delegation will also include representatives of the international community, President-elect Barrow, members of the Coalition as well as civil society organizations.   Also unclear whether the the delegation will be meeting Jammeh and the Coalition's government-in-waiting separately or jointly with Jammeh.  Why Jammeh finally accepted talks with AU, ECOWAS and the international community is equally unclear.

This is a developing story ....  

V.P. Njie-Saidy and Paramount Chief Demba Sagnia to lead demonstrations in support of Jammeh

Paramount Chief, Demba Sagnia

An all too familiar public display of sycophancy is about to be replayed in the streets of Banjul and around the country, according to our sources.  Led by the so-called Paramount Chief, Demba Sagnia, the former cook of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara until he was deposed by the 29-year old army lieutenant named Yaya Jammeh and the sitting Vice President Isatou Njie Saidy, demonstrations are scheduled in the days and weeks ahead to championing Jammeh's call to annul the presidential elections.

Chief Demba Sagnia will be leading his fellow chiefs in trying to whip up public support for a highly unpopular dictator who has just subverted the will of the Gambian voters with the help and tacit support of some ministers and party loyalists.

Included in the list of officials who will be participating in public demonstrations includes but not limited to Yankuba Colley, Mayor of KMC, Sheriff Bojang, Minister of Information, Ousman Rambo Jatta, MD of the Daily Observer newspaper, Fatou Lamin Faye, Minister of Education, Fatou Mass Jobe who is the Executive Director of a Foundation formed by the First Lady, Zainab Suma Jammeh who has been evacuated and currently at the safe distance from the mayhem that her husband is planning to create in The Gambia.

Similar demonstrations were organized by Jammeh when the European Union demanded that his regime mend its ways by improving the country's deplorable human rights record and when he "pardoned" prisoners who where forced to parade in humiliating format at the city square to demonstrate appreciation for being freed.  The planned and Jammeh-organized demonstrations this week, as in previous ones, will follow the same pattern and chants of how great Jammeh's dictatorship has been to ordinary Gambians.

Disappearances and not arrests are the most likely method Jammeh will employ

Jammeh on television nullifying election results

Disappearances and not arrests of the supporters of the President-elect and those who were publicly displaying endorsement of the outcome of the presidential elections have become Jammeh's real target.

According to sources, Jammeh will not arrest his opponents for fear of mass demonstrations that can bring down a regime that is already on the ropes but will lure victims to desolate areas where they will make them disappear.

Disappearances of opponents, including prominent ones are to be expected. Receiving telephone calls from persons posing as friends, acquaintances or as persons of authority asking potential victims to meet at rendez-vous points must be avoided.

Yankuba Badgie, the Director General of the notorious National Intelligence Agency has spent days immediately preceding the announcement of the election results compiling a video library of APRC members, supporters and former sympathizers of Jammeh who have been identified as targets, many of them in the Greater Banjul Area.  Prominent supporters in the Kombos are also prime targets.

Jammeh made reference to those who were "green" (his party's colors) who suddenly turned "yellow" (UDP colors) and at another occasion promised to "deal with the Banjul residence" for voting for Adama Barrow.  Those who fit this category of voters and were out in the streets jubilating in the days following Barrow's win are highly susceptible to Jammeh's adventurism.

And unless he is captured or forced into exile, he will continue to pose the imminent threat to the state that seems to be lost in the political jockeying for power that seems to be going on in Banjul. Ignore the imminent danger Jammeh poses at your own peril.    

Meet the civilians who instigated and helped carry out the constitutional coup d'etat in The Gambia

Balla Jahumpa, Minister

The Gambia made history last week by being one of the first, if not the first country in the African continent or anywhere else in the world for that matter to dislodge an entrenched dictatorship from power through the ballot box.

The smallest country on the African continent made history again a week later by reversing the results of an election that was certified by an Independent Electoral Commission and conceded to by the sitting dictator president and universally hailed by America, the European Union, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and numerous countries alike.

Pierre Minteh with US Ambassador

An equally astonishing peculiarity of the events of the Gambian presidential elections was not only the unexpected manner in which President-elect, Adama Barrow, swept the polls but the ensuing reactions of Yaya Jammeh and his civilian civil servants, led by Balla Jahumpa, Minister of Works who wtote the speech that Jammeh delivered reversing his decision to accept the verdict of the Gambian people, Pierre Minteh the Welfare Officer at the Gambia Embassy in Washington DC and Rtd. Col. Samsudeen Sarr who is now Deputy Mission Head at the United Nations Mission of the Gambia.  

These civilians shown here in this blog post took part in the planning and execution of the coup in collaboration with Jammeh and his military.  They did it for selfish reasons to protect the privileges they otherwise would not have earned in an open labor market.  They are all cronies and hangers-on of a murderous regime that has been able to sustain itself only through assassinations, extra-judicial executions, torture, disappearances and the use of rape an instrument of suppression.  

Seedy Njie

These two US-based civil servants joined militants of the ruling party in taking part in the political campaign to re-elect their boss in contravention of all rules governing the conduct of this class of public servants.

Samsudeen Sarr,  posing in front of UN

The constitutional coup d'etat was announced today by the Gambian dictator that the results of the elections which President-elect Barrow was instigated and implimented what later became known as Plan B by civilians that included ministers, mayors and parliamentarians some of whom are presented here.

Seedy Njie and Babou Gaye Sonko are parliamentarians of the ruling party- the former a nominated member representing the youth wing of the party and a chief propagandist and the latter an elected member who is a youth mobilizer and a leading propagandist of the party.

Alieu Jammeh, Sports minister

Alieu Jammeh is Jammeh's minster of Youth and Sports who is from a family of traditional chiefs who became a major promoter of a political party through sports.  As minister responsible, he made sure that all of the major sporting associations in the Gambia, ranging from the Gambia Football Federation to the National Olympics Committee are stuffed with party militants.  The knowledge and interest in sports takes a back seat to party loyalty which has contributed to the backwardness of Gambian sports.

Yankuba Colley is the mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council, the biggest local government authority in the country with one of the largest concentration of voters.  He was the former youth mobilizer for the party and one of the fiercest defenders of not only the dictatorship but the style of governance that puts higher premium on torture as a means of controlling and subduing an otherwise unwilling population.

Yankuba Badgie, NIA

Yankuba Badjie is Director General of the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA), a fugitive from the law in the U.S. State of Ohio is responsible for the maiming and killing by torture of opponents of the regime.  It was under his watch that Solo Sandeng, the United Democratic Party youth leader died in custody via torture.

In addition to these civilians, there are, of course, the assassination squad known as the "Jungulas" who confronted Yaya Jammeh when he conceded defeat and force him to have a change of heart. These class of killers felt betrayed and about to be thrown at the mercy of a new civilian government after carrying our Jammeh's orders to kill opponents of the regime.  Jammeh assured them that his decision will be revert.  Conceding defeat was a ploy to get the international community off his back and assured them "not to worry."

The international community's reaction to the decision to annul the results of the elections was swift and unequivocal.  Senegal has asked the Security Council to convene, the U.S State Department has condemned Jammeh's action and so are most of the civilized world.  

KMC Mayor, Colley

Travel bans and other sanctions will follow immediately before military action is taken to install the legitimate government of Adama Barrow as President of the Republic of the Gambia.  The mishandling of the election of the president-elect by those close to him must be re-examined to ensure that lapses of the kind witnessed in the past week are not repeated.  And that includes the unsavory characters and shady businessmen who have contributed, in large measure, to the current predicament of the country and must be arrested together with Yaya Jammeh and all those responsible for the constitutional coup d'etat that has unnecessarily put Gambian lives at risk.

The fact that Mohamed Bazzi, an alleged arms trafficker who is currently a subject of United States Treasury investigations and a financier of Hezbollah was able to gain access to President-elect a few days ago has raised concern among drug and small arms control agencies in the United States and Europe.  A bank, Prime Bank, he owned in The Gambia was liquidated after a US Treasury investigation discovered that it was used to finance Hezbollah, an organization classified as a terrorist organization by the government of the United States.      

BREAKING: Jammeh desperately trying to hang on to power despite losing to Barrow

Jammeh with guards during 2011 presidential elections

A source close to Jammeh who has just lost his bid for a 5th term as president to Adama Barrow informed us that he has convened a meeting at State House with his Security Chiefs in advance of his much anticipated television announcement scheduled for today at 9:PM GMT.

According to the same source, Jammeh is trying to convince the security chiefs that the election results were rigged by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) against him and in favor of his opponent, Adama Barrow. 

As we go to press, the meeting with the Security Chiefs is still going on with heated exchanges between Jammeh and some members of the military brass, some of whom are standing fast with the Gambian voters and refusing to go along with their Commander-In-Chief to subvert the Constitution.  Some of them have clearly expressed their determination to protect and defend the will of the Gambian people who have expressed their preference at last week's presidential elections.  

We reported last week that Jammeh was contemplating a staged coup, among other scenarios, designed to keep him in power.  Among them was to create a situation that will allow him to step in to "save the day and averting chaos and lawlessness" according to an earlier source.  Given a divided military, such a plan was difficult, if not impossible.  Thus, this blatant and naked power grab by simply refusing to hand-over power peacefully.

Some signs that Jammeh was planning a palace coup were evident since the shocking news that the dictator has been removed from office through the ballot box - a rare feat in African electoral history. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia and Chairwoman of ECOWAS trip to Banjul was a casualty of Jammeh's machination when it  was abruptly cancelled and deferred indefinitely by the Gambian dictator. 

Since the election results were announced last week and it became evident that Jammeh had lost, some prominent members of the ruling party, the APRC, have been agitating the base of the party and local chiefs and dignitaries to show solidarity by demanding that Jammeh stays.  It was unclear, even from the ardent supporters the rationale for such an action for a candidate that has clearly lost the elections despite the advantages of incumbency. 

Our advise to Jammeh is simple : he should pack his bags and vacate the State House - which is the People's House - to avert pointless bloodshed.  The Gambian people have spoken and their will must be respected.  To subvert it is treasonable.  We hope he gets the point.

                                                                  

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This is a developing story