Thousands
of supporters of the former ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and
Construction (APRC) on Thursday morning gathered at the Sukuta/Jabang
intersection and protested, demanding the unconditional return of former
President Yahya Jammeh.
Yahya
Jammeh is currently in Equatorial Guinea on exile after losing the 2016
presidential election to coalition candidate, Adama Barrow.
APRC
supporters are calling on ECOWAS, AU, European Union and the government of The
Gambia to respect the joint declaration which they claimed was signed in 2017,
which gives Jammeh the right return to the country anytime he wants.
Protesters carried banners with different inscriptions:
“Enough is Enough Babili Mansa Must Come Back; European Union Hands Off Gambia;
Respect the Joint Communiqué and Agreement is Agreement; The Joint Declaration
Must be Implemented and Now, European Union Stop Looting our Fisheries
Resources among others.
Fabakary
Tombong Jatta, the Interim Leader of the party after handed over; saying “the
2016 was the Presidential Election and that Gambian people went to the polls to
elect their leader. However, when the final results were announced many
couldn’t believe the dust of the point which resulted in the announcement of
two results.”
The
unfolding event after words, he said, had the potential to result to serious
political and civil crisis. The evolving political situation during the time,
Mr. Jatta continued, attracted attention both within and outside the Gambia;
hence different thoughts on how to resolve the impasse emerged, citing
interventionists and legalists among others.
The
APRC leader said the interventionists privileged the use of external
intervention to forcefully remove President Jammeh from office without granting
him much of a leeway. “This perspective believes the threat of actual use of
force or sanction against former President Jammeh is critical to ending the
political deadlock.”
The
Concessionists, he added, advocated for constructive engagement with President
Jammeh with a view to convincing him to step down, saying this perspective
didn’t accept military intervention as the best option, thus it therefore
showed persuasion as critical to peaceful resolution of the dispute.
According
to him, the legalists upheld the rule of law as central to ending the political
jock-jack. The perspective recognised the sovereignty of The Gambia as panacea
of the law in resolving the impasse.
“A
combination of consensus by ECOWAS, AU and UN convinced former President Jammeh
to exit power.”
He
maintained that the APRC as a party therefore wish to acknowledge and salute
the tremendous efforts underscored by former President Jammeh’s goodwill and
statesmanship. He sided with the greater interest of Gambian people in order to
preserve the peace, stability and security of the Gambia. It was also to
maintain the sovereignty and integrity and the dignity of The Gambian people.
“In
these circumstances, we the members of APRC on our accord demand the full
implementation of the joint declaration regarding the unconditional and
immediate return of Yahya Jammeh,” he told journalists in an interview.
