By Lamin Cham
The first glimpse of shiny looking pick-up cars marked in APRC colours emerged on social media yesterday much to the joy and excitement of supporters of the former ruling party. Apart from the familiar palm tree symbol on flat green background, the cars on display also carry a new slogan, ‘Back To State House’ printed on the doors of each car. The APRC has said one of the conditions of their current alliance talks with President Barrow’s NPP is for the return of their cars, seized along with the party’s bank accounts, in the wake of the Janneh commission report which called for the forfeiture of assets own by former president Jammeh, whom it accused of stealing Gambian people’s money.
The APRC has always argued that the party’s properties and monies do not belong to Jammeh and were raised or bought from contributions of ordinary people supporting the party.
Contacted for comments yesterday, APRC deputy spokesman Dodou Jah confirmed seeing the images of the cars on social media but added that the vehicles have not been officially handed over to the executive committee. “The issues about these cars are handled by a negotiation committee headed by Rambo Jatta. A total of 7 cars have been given but three others are expected to follow to make it ten,” Mr Jah said. He added that once the negotiation Committee reports fully back to the executive, everything surrounding the cars would be made public.
