(JollofNews) – President Yahya Jammeh’s plans to resettle in his home village, Kanilai, is being blocked in case he starts a rebel movement, an architect of the victorious opposition coalition said.
Mr Jammeh,51, conceded defeated in last week’s election and said he would hand over power to President-elect Adama Barrow and return to his home village some 118 kilometres away from the capital Banjul. He said he intends to continue farming so he can “eat what I grow and grow what I eat.”
But in an interview with the Guardian Newspaper, Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang, who once served in Mr Jammeh’s cabinet, claimed that on this farm, in Kanilai, close to the Senegalese border, Mr Jammeh had the “bunkers and treasure” to start an insurgency and the coalition feared he could move weapons out of the country.
“He can’t leave. If he leaves, he’s going to escape us,” she said. “We are stopping him from leaving. We are negotiating. He said he wants to go to Kanilai. Any day he tells us he wants to go abroad, then we say no. It’s the presidential prerogative.”
She said the new government wanted him prosecuted quickly in case he tried to flee – although it had not yet decided whether to try him in the Gambia or internationally. The government also planned to rejoin the international criminal court – Jammeh withdrew the Gambia from it, so the president who once vowed to bury opposition figures “nine feet deep” could find himself at The Hague.
“Even if it [the constitution] said that he was to be prosecuted immediately, our government will not do so because of the volatility of the environment. The environment is complex – you see them?” she said, pointing at a large lorry full of soldiers speeding down the road past the court.
There was no question of immunity, however. “He will be prosecuted. I’m saying a year but it could be less than that,” Jallow-Tambajang said. “This is my personal opinion – it might have taken three months because we really want to really work fast.
“We don’t trust him. The longer we leave him, the more possibilities he has to leave the country, to escape from the country and to even do an insurgency. He is capable. The man is capable. In Kanilai, he has bunkers. I have reliable sources that [say that] he has bunkers. I have been reliably informed that he has treasure in Kanilai, he’s sitting on treasure, on gold as they say.”She said that although Jammeh insisted he wanted to stay on his farm, the new coalition – led by Adama Barrow, a former estate agent who once worked at an Argos in London – suspected him of wanting to move all the weaponry and soldiers he had there over the border to Casamance, in the south of Senegal.
“Senegal is very alert,” she said. “Nobody trusts him, so they are also taking their own measures to ensure that nothing goes in. Because if anything goes in he’s going to move all the ammunition to Casamance and start a rebel movement. He’s a rebel.”
There was no deal between Jammeh and Barrow exchanging the acceptance of defeat for a promise of immunity, Jallow-Tambajang said.
“The only time he spoke to Mr Barrow in my presence was when he reluctantly conceded defeat and pledged to cede power from January 2017. There was no deal. We were resolved to really go up to the end. We knew we had won and we didn’t want to compromise any ethics.”
When Jammeh realised he was losing the election, she said, he tried to stop the results from being announced. “But we insisted. [We were] determined to protest if the results were rigged. And he had no support from the international community, from the military, nor the police. He was isolated. He was compelled to take such a decision.”
Jallow-Tambajang said Jammeh had petitioned to meet Barrow but that so far, the president-elect had refused because his predecessor was so unpredictable.
“He wants to meet Barrow. He has asked him to meet at his convenience, but we have decided not to meet him, because we don’t trust him. You can never take chances with Yahya Jammeh. That’s the level of distrust we have, that the population has. Our priority is the security of Barrow.”
Jammeh had amassed “billions of dollars, pounds, whatever” in stolen wealth, she claimed, including from deceased dictators such as Gaddafi and Mobutu who lodged their assets in the Gambia – and one of the things the new government would do was try to get some of it back.
“We are going to have a national commission for asset recovery,” Jallow-Tambajang said. “We’re going to investigate, to follow up not only him but his wife. His wife is a gold-digger. She has emptied our coffers. Each time you see her here it’s to empty our coffers,” she alleged.
He even tried to take the British embassy’s land, she claimed. “They said no – you can’t joke with them. The man is wealthy.”
Africa with great leaders do not need to send Black man to white man justice as white man will never never do what we Black people doing with .you can send war crimes to Lagos Dakar Bamako or Conakry but no to Hague that fake ICC African must learn from the past
Don’t talk rubbish – I am white British, married to a Gambian man and I am sending money and helping where I can and writing to our foreign secretary to help you. You are small minded racist person – so my daughter is ten years old and mixed race – half white British, half black Mandinka/Jollof so where to bigots like you leave people like my daugher? She adores The Gambia because I have taught her about her roots. She loves England because it is where she was born. The point is he is brought to justice wherever that might be – who cares so long as it happens? My daughter might be your president one day but probably not because you would be suspicious because she is half white? Please bring yourself into this centurary!!!!
It is true the international court is purposely for African people. No European has never been tried at Hague even though they are the greatest criminals on the face of the planet. It is the Europeans who destroyed the African continent. Africans should have their own justice system. No European country is a member of icc.
I think if our African leaders respect themselves and respect their people and their institutions, then the ICC will live us alone.
Dear Soninke, you are so misguided. It is about where there would be justice without undue political interference. Do you think that, were he to be sent to a country led by a dictator, he would be given justice? No. They will let him walk. Look at how a couple of African dictators met and agreed that President Joseph Kabila (in DRC) can extend his stay in power by more than a year without calling for elections. Civil society from churches to the population asked him to respect the constitution and call elections. Kabila refused to hold municipal and presidential election. He says his country does not have money to hold the elections but I bet that his bank account is full. African dictators will help themselves and would support the friends. If they go against their fellow dictators, they know their turn to face justice will be hastened.
So, Mr. Soninke, please think hard and do some proper analysis before releasing such, well, malarkey! Anyhow, I would support your freedom to display your ignorance. That is your inalienable right!
So true bro,why those guys from the west dont go to the hague.George Bush is languishing in the US after commiting atrocities in Iraq