By Alagie Manneh
Ousman ‘Rambo’ Jatta, the new deputy leader of the opposition APRC, has said that former president Yahya Jammeh will “one day” return to The Gambia and rule a second time.
Speaking in a Standard exclusive midweek, the APRC deputy leader said he is still loyal to Jammeh “because there is nothing left in The Gambia to be loyal to when everything is falling apart.”
He explained: “I am loyal to Jammeh, who has done so much for The Gambia and will soon be mobilising his party to come back to power, so that we can go back to where we were. Let me tell you one thing, the man is still a president; services provided to him in the [Gambian] State House are the same services that are being provided for him in Equatorial Guinea. He is a king, and inshallah, he is coming back to rule The Gambia. Next year we are going for election and time is running out for this coalition government because they are yet to achieve any meaningful development.”
When put to him that those comments might not go down well with the majority of Gambians today, Jatta said: “That is their problem, I am talking about mine. This is democracy and we support who we want to support. There is something wrong with [some people]. They only tend to see the negatives of Jammeh. What about the many lives he bettered? Are we not going to talk about those?”
Mr Jatta said he is in regular contact with Jammeh and as far as he was concerned, there is no crime in that.
“Yes, I am in touch with him, thank God. But we are not in touch to undermine the efforts of this coalition government. Is there any law that says one should not talk to Jammeh? We are in touch to keep our party alive. His condition is perfect.”
Responding to critics who accused him of loyalty to Jammeh, and not the country, he asked: “What is the difference? Yes, I am loyal to him. Be loyal to the president and being loyal to the country, what is the difference? What is left in The Gambia to be loyal to? If I were to choose between Jammeh and the coalition government, I will choose Jammeh.”
Mr Jatta also seriously criticised the Barrow administration, saying when incidents such as the Faraba killings happened under Jammeh, people accused him of being personally responsible, and now that it happened under Barrow administration, “nobody wants to take responsibility”.
“Who ordered the killing of Haruna Jatta? Who ordered the killing of Faraba protesters? So we must point fingers to President Barrow, as he pointed fingers to Jammeh.” Jatta said as far as he was aware, Jammeh never killed anybody.
Read more on Bantaba this week and next Friday.
