ECOWAS leaders in last-minute effort to ensure peaceful Gambia handover

Leaders from West Africa including Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Ghana’s former President John Dramani Mahama were in Banjul at press time, in a last-minute mediation effort to get Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh to stand down voluntarily – following his defeat in last month’s elections.

Jammeh who has ruled for over 22 years following a coup in 1994, lost the election to President-elect Adama Barrow by a narrow margin. He initially conceded defeat but a week later contested the results, after it emerged that there were some tallying errors in the results. The revised results released by the election umpire did not change the outcome of the election – as it only narrowed the margin of win between Jammeh and Barrow. Jammeh has called for an election re-run, and says he will not step down on January 18 when his tenure ends.

He filed a suit challenging the election results but Gambia’s Supreme Court which relies heavily on Judges from Nigeria, is unable to sit till May, because of the already booked schedules of Nigerian Judges.

Only yesterday, Jammeh’s Party – Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), filed a request at the Supreme Court for an injunction aimed at blocking the swearing in of Barrow.

Friday afternoon, Barrow asserted that “the Inauguration Ceremony will go ahead as planned on the 19 January 2017.”

A senior member of the coalition of political parties that ensured victory for Barrow has promised that Jammeh would be honoured as a former Head of State if he stepped down, and hinted that he might not face trial for alleged crimes during his tenure in office.

Mai Ahmad Fatty, said Jammeh would be entitled to the usual benefits afforded past Heads of State, including an office of his choice, bodyguards and luxury vehicles.

Although Jammeh’s critics want him tried for human rights violations and crimes, Fatty said the coalition is not pursuing legal action against Jammeh, and that they would like him to be someone they could approach for advice.

“If there are any crimes against President Jammeh, we cannot say so because the
crimes must be proven in a court of law. But at the moment, we are not talking about that,” he said.

Nigeria’s House of Representatives has voted to offer Jammeh asylum through the Executive arm of government, if he steps down.