By Omar Bah
The deputy leader of the APRC, Ousman Rambo Jatta has hinted that his faction led by Fabakary Tombong Jatta and the one led by Yaya Tamba, opposed to any coalition with the ruling NPP, will soon reconcile.
In October 2021, the APRC’s founder former Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh controversially dismissed the FTJ executive and replaced it with a new executive after they announced an alliance with President Barrow’s NPP. Since then, two sides became bitter rivals.
But speaking in a Star FM Wake-up Gambia Show to be aired today, Rambo Jatta, said: “Former president Jammeh now wants our attention and we welcome his call for APRC to reconcile but even before that we had a meeting before my departure to South Africa and we concluded that we should reconcile the two groups and it is good that Jammeh is championing it.”
Jatta who is also The Gambia’s deputy ambassador to South Africa said the FTJ-led executive cannot just get up and say they are going to reconcile with the No To Alliance faction but now that Jammeh himself made hints about it, they are expecting him to contact FTJ to end the dispute once and for all.
“I listened to Jammeh’s address to the No To Alliance in Kanilai on his birthday and I can tell that his mood has changed compared to before. That is why I concluded that something is not right and rightfully so because the international community is doing everything to support The Gambia to prosecute him. We have just heard that they have donated Euros 9 million for the formation of a hybrid court just to prosecute one man. That money could have been spent on other development projects but now they just want Jammeh prosecuted,” he said.
Rambo added: “So, yeah, it is highly likely that we will reconcile because we don’t have any objections to the party coming together. We had a meeting a few days ago and this was on our agenda. We are only waiting for Jammeh to call the party leader and the issue will be sorted out. We don’t want our party to die for another party to live. That party was just formed a few years ago so we cannot kill our party for it. We just went into an alliance with them and we are working on that alliance going into 2026 but we also want to put our house in order.”
According to Rambo even if Jammeh call FTJ today and asked him to reconcile the two factions, they would accept it without hesitation.
“We are just waiting for him to call and the following week, we will organise a mass rally and demonstrate to Gambians that APRC is stronger together,” he said.
Fate of APRC-NPP alliance
Commenting on whether the APRC will stand alone in 2026, Jatta said: “I cannot give you a definitive answer to that. We will have to go back to the negotiation table and If we make any decision on the matter we will communicate to the general public. But I can tell you that we have no timeline on the current agreement.
Asked to comment on an audio in which he was seemingly heard talking about Barrow as claimed by many, Rambo clarified that his comments were meant for Jammeh and not President Barrow as claimed in some quarters.
“I have realised some UDP supporters shared the audio alleging that I am backbiting President Barrow. Why would I go about backbiting President Barrow? That audio had nothing to do with President Barrow,” he said.
He accused the UDP of trying to block any possible reconciliation between the APRC and the No To Alliance.
