TAKING YAHYA JAMMEH AT HIS WORD AND HIS INCONSISTENCIES
By Gainako’s Banjul Correspondent
For the first time in twenty two years Gambia’s erratic outgoing dictator spoke about the sanctity of the 1997 document that was put together as the guide to running the country; namely the Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia. However as usual, he erred in every aspect of his errantic speech which made no sense and one that the Gambian people paid no attention to. Thus just for the joy of “Accountability, Probity and Transparency”; his own declaration when he hijacked our democracy in 1994, we will endeavor to take him to task and once again, prove to the whole wide world, that outgoing President Yaya Jammeh is incapable of simple logic and lacks the moral authority to lecture anyone on the sanctity of the very constitution that he violated for 22yrs of his brutal regime.
During the least watched Television address on ‘his own network,” GRTS, he used the word sacrosanct! Now lets take him to task against this backdrop. “That which is sacrosanct is doubly sacred: the two Latin components underlying the word, “sacro” and “sanctus,” were combined long ago to form a phrase meaning “hallowed by a sacred rite.” Having clearly defined the word, lets back track and ask ourselves, when in the last two plus decade did Yahya Jammeh and his thugs ever adhere to the sanctity of this very document he is toying with in anticipation of the reversal of the will of the people?, the simple answer is that Realistically, never before has Jammeh respected the sanctity of the constitution. THE GAMBIA HAS DECIDED!
Outgoing President Yahya Jammeh, assisted by a group of Nigerian thugs and rogues calling themselves Jurists lead by Chief Justice Emmanuel Oluwasegun Fagbenle, assisted by former CJ Justice Agim and the Justice Minister Mama Fatimah Singhateh (the only Gambian in this rogue group) have held The Gambia at a choke hold and discarded this sacred document that today for Jammeh is sacrosanct as if it were toilet paper. Justice Fagbenle like Yaya Jammeh has many business interest in the Gambian including a school, a church etc and is always in attendance at Jammeh’s political rallies, prompting many including the Gambia Bar Association to call his bias and ask him to step down. It was therefore pathetic for Jammeh to call out President Elect Barrow for the hiring of a private Senegalese Security firm when the State refused to provide the President Elect security. This from outgoing President Jammeh who hires Nigerian Mercenary judges outside of the Nigerian Technical Assistance Programme supported before by the commonwealth, instead Jammeh now uses Justices Fagbenle and Agim to recruit so called judges literally off the streets of Nigeria to help in turning Gambian Court rooms into instruments of repression, where Jammeh prosecutes his real and percieved “enemies” as well as innocent Gambian people.
Lets take a trip down memory lane and just select a few instances where this now sacrosanct document was disrespected, abused and never ever heeded to in Jammeh’s Gambia. In his twenty two years at the helm of affairs, when was the last time an arrested individual was granted access to a Lawyer or bail within forty eight hours as stipulated in this now sacrosanct document? When Jammeh decided to take the word “Secular” away from the constitution and declared The Gambia an Islamic Republic, where was this sacrosanct document ? Where Christians even given an opportunity to sit with him and question his erratic behavior let alone take the matters before the Supreme Court? Well, for ease of reference, there was even no Supreme Court then and there is none today; as clearly spelt out by our very own capable Gambian Jurists, The Gambia Bar Association.
Still on the now sacrosanct document; when Solo Sandeng, who by the way would have celebrated a birthday yesterday was arrested and murdered by the State for a right stipulated in this now sacrosanct document, one wonders where Yahya Jammeh was? Rather on his instructions, Solo Sandeng was tortured, murdered and buried somewhere in Tanji; a desecration of Gambian values and utmost disrespect for the old tradition of respecting the dead.
The women that were raped in state custody and those continuously raped in prisons across the country by Jammeh’s security officers as a form of torture, the plastic bags over heads of detainees during torture sessions, the hot candle wax being poured on genitals during interrogations at the Crocodile hole, (Babadinka), the detaining and illegal jailing of innocent Gambians for months and years without court order or appearance and many many more gruesome stories coming out of his own National Intelligence Agency NIA, where was the word SACROSANCT and its relevance to the Gambian constitution? Why were the rights of all the above Gambians not respected as sacrosanct as prescribed in the Gambian constitution.
Who is Yahya Jammeh trying to fool? Outgoing President Yahya Jammeh has lost the mandate and moral authority to even speak to the Gambian people because for circa twenty years he has raped, tortured and killed our people indiscriminately. His sycophants that are mounting an offensive on his behalf lead by Malick Jones of GRTS who in his sober senses, a rarity for him; should recall how he was thrown into the notorious Mile Two for merely sending a text; Bala Jahumpa a drug addict and alcoholic without a home and incompetent liar turned UN diplomat Samsudeen Sarr are taunting the Gambian people with this sacrosanct bull and crap. There day is surely not far off. “Least,” we ask them about Chief Ebrima Manneh, Kanyiba Kanji, Daba Marenah and Co, Ousman Korro Ceesay and countless others murdered on Jammeh’s orders, where was SACROSANCT?
Just this morning, from afar, I witnessed the arrest of a Petty Trader for selling “Gambia Has Decided” T-shirts; it makes me wonder what happened to SACROSANCT that was the premise of what is dubbed a nonsense and no binding statement by Yahya Jammeh just thirty six hours ago. What happened to the rights of Gambians as detailed in the Constitution that Jammeh now refers to as Sacrosant to wear T-shirts, sell t-shirts and express themselves freely without being arrested? With all these illegal activities going on and orchestrated by the Kanilai Villain, its time for the Gambian people to engage in Community Policing and be each others keeper to stand up and take on these criminals of impunity and injustice.
The only thing SACROSANCT today, is the will and resolve of the Gambian people and nothing else.
Yahya Jammeh needs to know that the constitution he is referring to is not that of the Islamic Republic of The Gambia. Outgoing President Jammeh committed treason and an impeachable offence when he unilaterally declared Gambia as an Islamic State against the secular 1997 constitution, written for The Republic of The Gambia and to this date, no referendum has been held to approve any change to the secular nature of the Gambia. Thus again, Jammeh having committed a constitutional coup and never respected the Constitution of the Gambia, has no moral or legal authority to be quoting a document he has always disregarded for 22 years in favour of illegal executive orders and decrees.
Food for thought! Gambia has decided, Yahya GIPPO!