ECOWAS Mediators Remain Hopeful Despite Jammeh’s Defiance

After hours of working hard to convince the Gambia’s defeated President Yahya Jammeh to hand over power, leaders of the Economic Community of West African States left Banjul without achieving their goal.

President Jammeh would not renege on challenging the December 1st presidential election results at the Supreme Court which lacks enough judges to preside over cases. Jammeh, who had earlier conceded defeat, later reversed his decision claiming voter irregularities. The outgoing leader also declared the results “null and void”. And to add salt to injury, security forces denied the Chief Electoral Commissioner access to his office on Tuesday.

In the light of all these developments, the Ecowas Chair who led a delegation of four heads of state remains hopeful. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told Reuters that “it is not time for a deal. It is not something that can happen in one day. It is something that we have to work on.”

President Sirleaf’s delegation included President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Ernst Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and outgoing President of Ghana John Mahama.

Sirleaf is delighted that the “President and all the entities assured us that peace and stability will remain in Gambia as the decision process proceeds to a conclusion.”

Regional leaders will convene a summit on the Gambia’s political crisis in Abuja on Saturday.

Mediators also held separate meetings with President-elect Adama Barrow and his opposition coalition partners. After the meeting, President Buhari told the opposition to go ahead with the inaugural preparations.” President Jammeh is constitutionally obliged to hand over power to President-elect elect in mid-January next year.

Yahya Jammeh’s government denied Mr. Barrow security and access to national television.

The head of the ECOWAS Commission Marcel de Souza told Radio France International that sending troops was “a conceivable solution” if negotiations have failed.

Ends

5 Comments

  1. A total disgrace to Gambians that this lunatic sits to be negotiating something with some of the brightest statesmen and women of the continent. This ugly human being without a brain is a shame in our history. But how can Gambian youths within the country’s security apparatuses be even so dumb listening to Yaya Jammeh convincing them to commit suicide with him. What happen in the past that the army has accomodated such uneducated and primitive human beings? Where are they from? How did people so primitive happen to find themselves at the country’s helms? Why is he (Jammeh) bent on his desire to spill the blood of Gambian children. The promoted young army officers with their Juju-necked commander must understand the fact that, knowing how to dismantle a Kalasnikov, and knowing how pull a trigger, is NOT what it takes to be a soldier. A soldier means those always at the service of the ordinary citizens irrespective of their ethnic, race, religion or political opinion belonging. A true soldier understands his oath of duty but sadly enough this doesn’t seem to be the case of the Gambia’s military. The Gambia’s military has the most dangerous deep throats who prefer rice and beef sauce to the security of the country’s children. That is why anytime that true and well aware soldiers among them want to bring the state of impunity to an end to restore democracy in the country, somehow, greedy rat finks among them would bust the plot.

    • Bourne, our military is infiltrated with tribal militia forces from cassamance and the top leadership of our national security apparatus are all Jola people. In The Gambia, most important positions are all occupied by Jola people . Jammeh has brainwashed these people and this is why the military are totally loyal to him . CDS Badgie is loyal to jammeh and his ethnicity. All the top leaderships in the military show this current political crisis as a tribal problem and this is why they all pledged their allegiance to the Dictator. They are in control of armories or weapons in the country. This political standoff is based on tribalism which is deeply rooted in the military. Other tribes in the military do not have access to weapons and they are disarmed. In fact Yaya jammeh has disarmed all the mandinkas military officers day after the election. These mandinkas military officers are in extreme danger as I write this post. Any military intervention, these are the people he will kill and claim that they are kill in military operations. We are in dangerous moments.

  2. in love with the Gmabia

    I can’t remember one dictator who was blessed with a pleasant ending.

  3. Max I would say every sensible person will admit he sensed the same way. A guy like Jammeh, who ordered the killing of school children is such a coward and freak who cannot be expected to say, ‘yes, I concede to defeat by the opposition and that be all…..Dictators’ air of ‘belly-full-still-hungry’ tells it all. I still insist on being neutral in the ethnics issue however based on the takes from folks that surnames might not after all bore a specific ethnic group’s identity.
    The best persons in history have not had a pleasant living in life but a day to day struggle through it. Because, they would acquire nothing for them if not what they sacrifice in, for their nations with regards to when we are talking of mere Gambian (pleasantly-ended- grannys’-tales). We are concerned an praying for the total freedom of the people of the Gambia and in that all stakes for some kind of a pleasant ending is in the tunnel of darkness that I am not in love with at all.
    Everyday, hour, minutes and seconds marks to end or begin something in the Gambia and elsewhere so hope we don’t be considering ourselves as Gambian’s who have achieved or acquired something yet, for a pleasant ending. All we acquire in terms of material and kind won’t worth s— if a country is in a mess like this one in the Gambia right now. All Gambian citizens are literally losers and the way to the end is yet to be seen for lack of light. Some have acquired everything one can dream of living in the Gambia but have indeed seen themselves as failed citizens hoping for light to show at the other end of the tunnel they are going through like ‘crabs in a barrel’. It is indeed disheartening to see more contempt expressed over what lies ahead of Jammeh if he is brought to trial than condemning and expressing concern on ‘Jammeh’s dream put to live trial’; by trying to reject the Gambia election’s poll results.
    With concern, For the Gambia

  4. Dictator YAHYA AJJ JAMMEH, you can be defiant anyhow you want but Allah is the mightiest and his decision is final. Allah and the Gambian people have spoken loud and clear on December 2nd, 2016. You should be ashamed of yourself for exposing your hypocrisy for the whole world to see when you make a U-turn on December 9th, 2016 speech on the national TV. That speech is complete authentication sign of hypocrisy; you said this within one week tell otherwise with the same subject matter. Readers, can you guys see what I have seen in that picture above, he dictator YAHYA AJJ JAMMEH is smiling while the four head of state are looking at one another with no smiling faces. That tell you that they look at dictator YAHYA AJJ JAMMEH has a childish ignorant stupid ruthless dictator who don’t care about his own people’s interests at heart but himself, his family, and inner circle loyalists like CDS ousman Badgie, General Borra colley, Sana Manjang, devil VP Isatou Njie Saidy, sheriff Bojang and etc. Jammeh, Insha Allah you will leave the office and your ass will be roasted in the last desk of hellfire because you are pure hypocrite.

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