By Omar Bah
Madi Ceesay, the UDP national Assembly Member who was recently accused by presidential adviser Siaka Jatta of uttering treasonable language has hit back saying it is the likes of Mr who are misleading the Gambian leader.
“I would personally hold the likes of Siaka Jatta, who called himself a political adviser to President Barrow, responsible for all the mess Gambians are going through; probably due to the wrong political advice he offers to the president,” he said in a write-up shared with The Standard.
Ceesay further stated that Mr Jatta is fully aware that President Barrow had after assuming the position of president told Gambians and the world that he was going to step down after three years and will not participate in subsequent elections.
“All I am saying or standing for and will continue to do so, is that we the electorate are going to hold President Barrow accountable for his political campaign promise which is that he will resign after three years. neither in or anybody fabricated this agreement.
It was reached and proclaimed by President Adama Barrow and his team and he is being asked to respect that.
It is as simple as that, unless Siaka Jatta is telling us that he understands it in another way,” Ceesay added.
He continued: “If holding a politician accountable to his campaign promise is treason then i am ready to face the courts.
The 3 Years Jotna members have all the rights to demonstrate peacefully, which is a constitutional right given by the constitution and I did not see who can take those constitutional rights from them”.
The three years matter, Ceesay added, is a moral issue.
“It was President Adama Barrow who openly campaigned in the name of three years and had a lot of well-educated people around him, who are very knowledgeable in the constitution.
The fact that he and all those who were in the campaign team knew that the presidential mandate is five years and yet agreed on the three years was enough to prove that it is also not against the constitution for a president to resign especially if that president himself said he will do so.
But perhaps more importantly what is wrong in demonstrating to tell that president that you told us something before and now you are changing? He should morally do the right thing and resign come December 2019, to avoid people exercising their constitutional right to peacefully protest against a failed promise by their leader.
This is as simple as that.
Nobody is using any threat. If anything they, the presidential advisers, are the ones saying there will be hot water tanks, people will be shot et cetera.
They are the ones using threats and heightening tensions.
All what people are saying is peaceful demonstration and it people like Siaka Jatta who are misleading President Barrow from seeing the light,” Mr Ceesay said. Ceesay said Mr Jatta’s call for him to resign is irresponsible and nonsensical, adding that Jatta would do a better job by asking Mr Barrow to resign as that is a popular demand among Gambians.
“We have a situation in our hands and I think the stakeholders responsible of forming the coalition should call for stakeholder’s conference to chart a way forward,” he concluded.
