By Omar Bah
The leader of the opposition Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction, Fabakary Tombong Jatta has said that if the current government is claiming the APRC were involved in human rights violations then they must not repeat the same mistakes.
“I want us to move away from the idea of what the APRC has done and they cannot question it, because it is not progressive and it will not take us anywhere. Even if the allegations are true the role of this administration is not to repeat the same mistakes,” he said at a press conference yesterday, citing the death of Haruna Jatta and the killing of Faraba youths as clear testimonies of rights violations under the Barrow administration.
He continued: “If you said we have done something bad and you are doing the same thing then we are better. I have said times without number that we have restructured for the better.”
FTJ said all the alleged human rights violations labeled against his party are just allegations. “I can only agree that they happened during the reign of the APRC but those who committed those crimes are Gambians and other nationals for one reason or the other. We are not perfect, this is why I said we want to improve from our weaknesses.”
He said the people who were lying against Jammeh during the presidential campaign are eager to meet him so that they would have the opportunity to apologise.
FTJ also expressed his party’s dissatisfaction over the TRRC’s mandate to start its probe from 1994, adding that the decision was deliberate and meant to tarnish the image of APRC and former President Jammeh.
IEC
“For the IEC to gain its credibility, the chairman must resign. I want to urge President Barrow in the name of justice to call on Alieu Momarr Njai to resign. Our reasons are after we lost the election, he said with the whole world watching that he is happy that we lost and his recent claim that the list we submitted did not include Jammeh is another testimony. Whenever we are a step forward they come up with something to take us back,” he stressed.
He said the APRC as a party will forever cherish the achievements of President Jammeh, adding, “We will never forget him.”
FTJ further stressed that the APRC knew from the start that Barrow was not telling the truth about the Coalition agreement. “We knew he was not going to honor the agreement.”
