By Amadou Jadama
Former Gambian president Yahya Jammeh has said he will return to The Gambia but did not say when or how.
Addressing a campaign rally of the GDC-led three party alliance in Garawol and Koina on Saturday through a telephone from his exile base in Equatorial Guinea, Jammeh stated: “I heard people are saying that Yahya Jammeh is in exile and he will not come back to The Gambia. I am not in exile, I am on leave. I left for Equatorial Guinea because of an agreement with Ecowas, AU and UN. Unfortunately, the government of [President] Barrow did not respect that agreement, and the AU, Ecowas and UN did not enforce the agreement we signed. But that will not stop me from coming to The Gambia. Election or not election, I will come to the Gambia.”
Jammeh continued: “Adama Barrow had been saying he is a law-abiding president but he has been violating the law in so many ways. People are dying like dogs. We have seen containers of drugs coming into the country and not even one person arrested and prosecuted. We must unite by voting him out whether he likes it or not.
“We will regulate the security sector by ensuring the safety of all Gambians. I am aware that Senegalese troops come to Gambia, shoot people, arrest them and prevent you from cutting firewood in your own forest and take them to Senegal. That is unacceptable and that will stop within the first week of our [GDC, APRC, GAP] administration because The Gambia is a sovereign state.”
Jammeh said within a year of their administration, Gambians “will forget all the sufferings” they have gone through and that “violence, lawless in the country, armed robbery, disappearance of children and cutting of their private parts will all be stopped within three months”.
He urged the voters to elect Mamma Kandeh so that The Gambia can regain its “independence, dignity, prosperity, security and happiness”.
Defiance
President Adama Barrow last week warned Kandeh from giving Jammeh platform to meddle in Gambian politics and warned that he could resort to using the law.
Kandeh publicly defied Barrow and said Jammeh will continue to address his rallies. Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also confirmed to The Standard that the government wrote to Malabo asking them to rein in Jammeh.
Apparently nothing has come out of these attempts to gag the former president and of recent he has been speaking with more regularity.
Influential pro-Jammeh social media commentator Omar Sanneh alias Baitullah based in the Casamance, has said President Barrow will return to State House in a coffin if he stops Jammeh from speaking out publicly.
