Former Gambian president Yahya Jammeh has said his “imminent return from exile in November” will not be a low-key affair, insisting that a red carpet will be rolled out as it did the day he was leaving The Gambia for exile in Equatorial Guinea.
The former Gambian president also warned of dire consequences for any attempt to prevent him from landing on the Gambian soil.
“If Adama Barrow thinks that he is the only one who can or in fact the one to bring me back, he is not going to do it. But Adama Barrow, you cannot also prevent me from coming to The Gambia. Sooner or later, we will know who owns The Gambia, you or me. That day would be very nice, very nice, very nice,” Jammeh said in an audio recording, which was shared many times.
The former Gambian strongman hinted at a possible contact at the Banjul International Airport on the date and time of his announced return.
“In fact, I looked for the iPad, no it’s the tablet where I put everything about the oil and gas and some other things that I don’t want to tell you. Those are not the only resources we have but I will get them back peacefully or by force because this is robbery. And you people, who sold our country, be ready. You said I’m not coming. Let’s see who is going to run,” Jammeh said.
He added: “The other people are saying Yaya Jammeh should not talk about The Gambia. Who the hell are you? Wait for me when I’m coming. You be at the airport and tell me Yaya Jammeh, you cannot come down and let…I don’t want to say…I am waiting for that day. You all wait for me, okay. You all wait for me.” Jammeh concluded this remark with laughs, but he indicated that he does not laugh for the sake of laughing.
“Ask soldiers, who know me, sometimes when I laugh what mood I am in,” he stated.
The former Gambian leader said: “I don’t think I am going to sneak into the country like that. No. I’m not a coward. The way I left, the world was seeing me going red carpet to the plane, that’s the way I will come down out of the plane to a red carpet. If you don’t put a red carpet there!,” Jammeh said swearing to God seven times before stating: “Wait for me.”
Earlier, Mr. Jammeh maintained that “the crime that is taking place in The Gambia is worse than in Mexico or Columbia”.
“Nobody has ever been prosecuted,” he laughed, adding: “Some were complaining about my checkpoints. When the law killed people that killed people and they were executed, what did they tell me…he is a killer, this and that. Now you know the reason. But I tell them one day, you will beg for execution [and] nobody is going to listen to you. That’s the day that has come.
Now almost every day, someone is raped or stabbed or run over by a vehicle, robbed, raped…Everything goes in The Gambia today. All the worst criminals around our neighbourhood, even far away come. The worst drug dealers come. Containers of drugs come but it’s coming to an end.”
