Gambia: AU will not recognise Jammeh as President from January 19

January 13, 2017Agency Report

Photo credit: citifmonline.com

The African Union will cease to recognise Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh as the nation’s legitimate president with effect from January 19.

It is the date he is due to hand power to Adama Barrow, the winner of the December 1 election.

The AU’s Peace and Security Council made this declaration after a meeting in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

The council also warned of “serious consequences in the event that his action causes any crisis that could lead to political disorder, humanitarian and human rights disaster, including loss of innocent lives and destruction of properties”.

The AU declaration came on a day President Muhammadu Buhari led a delegation of West African leaders to Banjul, Gambian capital, with the aim of persuading the soldier turned politician, to hand over power to Mr. Barrow.

Mr. Jammeh’s political party, in the latest gambit, has gone to court to halt the inauguration of Mr. Barrow, on the basis that Mr. Jammeh’s challenge of the electoral result has not been decided by the country’s Supreme Court.

The case was adjourned for months, because the court could not form a quorum.

Meanwhile, opposition politicians are trying to offer some carrots to encourage Mr. Jammeh to leave power peacefully.

The regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), had on December 23, 2016 put standby military forces on alert.

The ECOWAS Commission President, Marcel de Souza, said Senegal, The Gambia’s only territorial neighbour, would lead any military operation in the country.

Other West African countries, would be requested to provide troops as well, Mr. De Souza reportedly said.

Mr. Jammeh lost the December 1 2016 Gambia presidential election to opposition candidate, Mr. Barrow.

He initially accepted defeat and congratulated Mr. Barrow but changed his mind and decided to challenge the outcome of the election.

He also vowed not to hand over to the winner as expected on January 19.

On Thursday, Mr. Jammeh said he would not step down before a Supreme Court decision on the disputed election, the BBC reported.

The President, the report said, insisted his cabinet and the National Assembly would remain in place until the Supreme Court rules on his party’s petition.

There is currently shortage of judges in the country to sit on the matter.

The case can only be heard in May if Nigeria agrees to supply judges to the Supreme Court.

West African leaders, led by President Buhari, the chief mediator, travelled to Gambia Friday to persuade Mr. Jammeh to accept an “honourable exit plan”.

The outcome of that meeting is unknown at this time.

DOWNLOAD THE PREMIUM TIMES MOBILE APP

Now available on

TEXT AD:DIABETES Is CURABLE! Don't Let It Threaten You! To NORMALIZE Your Blood Sugar In 21Days For Life, Click Here!!!.

All rights reserved. This material and any other material on this platform may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, written or distributed in full or in part, without written permission from PREMIUM TIMES.

Top News

R.Ess. Kay

Once again the so-called JUDICIARY is the shame of an African country.
In Nigeria no fewer than two Supreme Court Judges face criminal trial for bribery and corruption.
In Ivory Coast foreign troops from France fired rifle shots to nullify the decision of Ivorian Supreme Court.
Here again the African Union takes the same stance, that the courts in African countries are very useless.
By law, an election in The Gambia is not complete until validated by the Supreme Court, but see that law!
The African Union obviously has no faith in the judiciary and instead passes over the heads of the Judges.
- Irumundomon
  
  Where in Africa are you from. You should support transition peacefully, of one man or woman rule for 22 years as a leader on one country, that by its self, has nullified any decision from any supreme court. We are talking 22 years as a president, please grow up and show hate to laws that allowed him in the first place, for this many yeats.
  - marc umeh
    
    Selfish , ignorant people masquerading as educated.
    - Questo
      
      @marcumeh:disqus
      
      The question is simple:- should armored tanks be allowed to replace the Supreme Court
      
      to decide any election petition after a presidential election in African countries henceforth?
      - Powerlessconscious
        
        Should jameh rule for 100years? Is he a god?
      - Fili.Okun
        
        @powerlessconscious:disqus : Is it your business how long President Jammeh rules? It can only become
        your business if you go and take up the citizenship of Gambia. Nobody here or anywhere has so far
        said that President Jammeh violated any section of the Constitution of Gambia. Even BUHARI can’t
        say that and has not said that. Why should somebody who has not violated any law be declared a
        criminal by outsiders? I repeat. Nobody here or anywhere has so far said that President Jammeh violated any section of the Constitution of Gambia. I challenge anybody to contradict me here!
        If you want to criticize Gambia you must show better example in your own country in Nigeria.
      - Uncle Laolu (Lagos state)
        
        Fili.Okun: Old boy, there’s no better example O!
        Under a supposed anti-corrupt regime the Managing Director of Sterling Bank,
        YEMI ADEOLA, was found to have actively hidden stolen public funds of almost
        154 million dollars in a secret vault inside the bank without entering the
        money on any ledger. That is complete evidence of active criminal intent.
        EFCC somehow uncovered this fraud two weeks ago. But up till now Yemi Adeola
        is in his office as moneylaundering Managing Director of Sterling Bank without any
        arrest or consequence. Is Nigeria a country again?
      - Powerlessconscious
        
        If it is not my business. Then is not your business also to defend jameh.
        Mind you, there is not country in the world that have laws in which a president can single handedly cancel an election. For example, Obama canbnever cancel USA election because of Russia input. You will go to court with evidence but that does not stop you to get out of the sit pending when you get justice. This applies to all democratic countries in the world including Gambia. But jameh want to disrespect this constitution and use FORCE. This is not democratic. He should get out and go to court which is reasonable.
        Mind you, this is not about buhari. It is about ECOWAS and AU. So you guys should stop to shout buhari.
      - marc umeh
        
        Yes , if the supreme court has been decimated and rendered impotent by the powers that be , as is obviously true in this case.
        22yrs is enough even for a devil.
    - Irumundomon
      
      What do you mean?
C.Law

What The Constitution of The Gambia Says……

“This constitution is the supreme Law of The Gambia and any other law found to be inconsistent
with any provision of this Constitution shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void. (§ 2 [4] ).
The Supreme Court shall have an exclusive original jurisdiction – on any question
as to whether or not any person was validly elected to the office of President. (§ 127 [1] [c]).

The Gambia shall not-

(a) enter into any engagement with any other country which causes it to lose its sovereignty
without the matter first being put to a referendum and passed by such majority as may be
prescribed by an Act of the National assembly.”
- Repost by Popular Demand
  
  President Jammeh rejects BUHARI’s mediation
  
  PRESIDENT YAHYA JAMMEH has today rebuffed President Buhari’s mediation and vowed to stay put
  as President of The Gambia until the Supreme Court hears his election petition later in May and
  declares otherwise. President Jammeh’s lawyers had filed an application at the Supreme court
  of The Gambia yesterday, asking that an injunction be issued to stop swearing-in ceremony
  of anyone as the duly elected president on the 19th of this month, as previously scheduled.
  President Yahya Jammeh thus rejected any suggestion of ever taking up asylum in Nigeria.
  
  Reports say
  Nigerians are being laughed off in several diplomatic circles Africa as
  ignorant people usually led by a slew of ignoramuses self-described as
  “statesmen”. The current crisis in The Gambia is being openly said ascribed to
  the ignorant leadership of OLUSEGUN OBASANJO of Nigeria who’d set a terrible
  precedent of offering asylum under international law (which provisions
  Obasanjo does not even understand) to ex-President of Liberia,
  Charles Taylor, only for Olusegun Obasanjo to later set Charles Taylor up for
  arrest and extradition to the International Criminal Court. That was the lowest
  point of disgrace for Nigeria in the history of international affairs.
  - Repost by Popular Demand
    
    ….(2) President Jammeh rejects BUHARI’s mediation
    
    General Olusegun Obasanjo, as President of Nigeria, totally messed up the
    meaning of diplomacy by putting the asylee (Charles Taylor) in a security car
    in Calabar, Cross Rivers state; drove him a distance of 1286 kilometers by road
    to the borders of Nigeria in the town of Gamboru-Ngala in far north-east state of
    Borno, and told him to escape from there on foot, only for the same Nigerian
    officials to suddenly turn round and arrested Charles Taylor on false charges
    of his “trying to escape”.
    
    The Nigerian security officials put Charles Taylor under close arrest; virtually
    shackled him and flew him like a prisoner to the International Criminal Court
    via Liberia. That was the moment Nigeria fell into disgrace in international
    circles as a result of Olusegun Obasanjo’s ignorant misrule. For fear of
    another country following Olusegun Obasanjo’s illiterate understanding of
    diplomacy, President Yahaya Jameh of The Gambia refused any offer of
    asylum, especially from Nigeria, following that Olusegun Obasanjo’s rural,
    uninformed, uneducated and village-level understanding of diplomacy.
    - straight-to-the-point
      
      IT IS GOOD TO REPEAL AND REPLACE MUHAMADU BUHARI AS PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA.
- Godfrey Akpan
  
  IF THIS IS CONSTITUTION OF GAMBIA, IT MEANS THERE IS K-LEG IN WHAT PRESIDENT BUHARI
  IS ASKING PRESIDENT JAMMEH TO DO, BECAUSE BUHARI CANNOT ASK JAMEH TO VIOLATE HIS
  OATH OF OFFICE TO UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION OF THE GAMBIA. EVEN ALSO, BUHARI CAN’T
  AS JAMEH TO AGREE TO ASYLUM OR EXILE, WHEN THE GAMBIA CONSTITUTION SAYS “NO” TO
  SUCH ENGAGEMENT OR AGREEMENT WITH ANY FOREIGN COUNTRY. THIS IS THE REAL ISSUE.
  - Odafe Iniruaye
    
    @disqus_4uyRT4wRt5:disqus
    
    The best thing now is for President Buhari to come back to Nigeria. Buhari did not read
    the Constitution of Gambia before he jumped inside aeroplane to waste Nigeria’s money.
    People have been saying it that APC is a party of illiterates in Nigeria. It is now clear to me.
    How can you say you want to mediate by force? Or go and mediate what you don’t know?
    - Julius
      
      Question : Why do you Ibos always call people illiterate..even the motor park tout that can’t spell his own name ?
kusanagi

I feel sorry for Jammeh I really do. To suffer from such huge amounts of megalomania; it can’t be easy for him.

To have been in a God like position for two decades only to feel a noose tightening around the neck must be very confusing right about now.

Honestly half of me hopes he stays in power and they do him like they did Gbagbo and his wife. Idiots.
- CeeCee1818
  
  I want him to be tossed into the stinkiest sewage, along with Mugabe.
Wise Man

i am suspecting that President Yahya Jammeh is the real publisher of PREMIUM TIMES.

Yesterday too I saw his photo two times on the front page and started to suspect this thing.
- aisha ani
  
  You will not kill somebody.
SAM .A

Yahaya Jammeh needs no appeasement , the only language he understands is force , he came to power with use of force , he had one man power show , he still thinks that he can coerce the whole Africa head of states with force . They should not only recognize him as President of Gambia , he should be given an ultimatum to leave the post since all persuasion have failed , Like King Pharaoh of Egypt , he has a date with destiny . Karma is pushing him hard to get is Hell made reward
RAPE on the Niger DELTA

There is massive poverty in the Niger Delta. There is nothing to show for the wealth of the region as monies from the region are used to develop Abuja and the rest of the country. The only benefit the oil producing and resource owners – Biafra and Niger Delta regions benefit from Nigeria are :
– Pollution
– Neglect
– Violence
– Military Occupation
– Wanton arrest of its citizens
– Harassment
– Sponsored propaganda to defame
– Bypass in political appointments
– Hate, hate and more hate
– Etc etc, etc

…yet, the parasitic regions (Vultures) that feast on the resources of the Niger Delta want it to remain part of Nigeria even as they care not about the many artificial problems that oil exploration has brought to the people –Health issues / Diseases arising from toxic pollutants. Buhari never borrowed to clean up the Niger Delta or rehabilitate the displaced farmers and fishermen. But he borrows to resettle those reportedly displaced by Islamic terrorists – a people (Terrorists) he claims must not be killed.

SECESSION is the only way for the Niger Delta and Biafran regions if they must achieve their potentials. Buhari can remain president of the rest of Nigeria and those of us who do not want to be associated with Nigeria in any way should be left alone to live our dreams and fly to our destination – have our own country. And this is what we must do. May God be with our freedom fighting comrades – the AVENGERS.
DELTAN

Niger Delta Avengers please begin the Opreation Jericho wall and Hurricane Joshua. Lets build a wall and the parasites feasting on our Niger Delta resources shall pay for it. All say Amen!
- D. Glavdar
  
  @sambabalola:disqus
  
  I am not aware of domestic values Nigeria attempts to export to The Gambia. As a matter of fact; there’s none.
  In Nigeria, the Managing Director of Sterling bank, Yemi Adeola, continues his own limitless tenure
  in office despite being caught a fortnight ago with 153 million dollars stolen from NNPC. Why then should President
  Yahya Jammeh in faraway Gambia be threatened with armoured tanks to quit office, if Yemi Adeola, as a proved moneylaundering criminal accomplice, is granted impunity for continuous stay in office?
  
  It makes no sense! Or am I aware that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has been asked to quit his own traditional office in Kano on audit evidence of wholesale looting of Central Bank of Nigeria in excess of 1.6 trillion Naira. These two examples show the contradictions of President Buhari’s foreign policy in Gambia. A good foreign policy must come from domestic principles well-kept at home, not by endeavoring to enforce standards abroad which are routinely violated with impunity inside Nigeria
- Julius
  
  Your governors, elders and elites plus mama piss and her husband will steal the money and there wont be any wall anywhere. but, you have somebody else to blame…Buhari. Niceeee !!!
MammanJiyaVatsa

If only late Sgt.Samuel Doe could offer Yahaya Jammeh advice from his grave, part of what he`ll tell him is to run, run for his dear life, and even hand over power before the January 19th handover date !