Foreign

Gambian Government’s Website Features Barrow As President, Jammeh’s Photo Removed

Published

7 years ago

January 19, 2017

Amid unconfirmed reports that last-ditch diplomatic effort has succeeded with the incumbent President Yahya Jammeh agreeing to handover power peacefully before the expiration of the deadline given him to quit by ECOWAS leaders, the photo of President-elect, Adama Barrow, has already replaced that of Jammeh on the Gambia government website, accompanied with a notice announcing January 19, 2017 as the inauguration date.

The last minute negotiations was spearheaded by Mauritanian President, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who is reportedly in Gambia to convince Jammeh to step down.

According to reports from Banjul, which are yet to be independently confirmed, Jammeh agreed to step down in the interest of peace and stability of the Gambia, after a tense closed-door meeting with the visiting Mauritanian president.

The change of photo on the website was done referring to Barrow as President, even before he is inaugurated, just as Ghana announced it has also deployed 250 troops in the ECOWAS Mission in The Gambia (ECOMIG). This is in addition to troops from Nigeria and Senegal that have been massing towards the Gambia border with Senegal.

President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has repeatedly approved and the deployment of a combat team of 250 troops, backed with the appropriate logistical equipment, to the Islamic Republic of The Gambia, as part of an ECOWAS mission in that country.

In a statement signed by acting Communications Director at the presidency, it said “ECOWAS has decided as a result of the refusal of President Yahaha Jammeh to accept the verdict of the Gambian people in the elections of December 1, 2016, to deploy troops from its member states to The Gambia with immediate effect.”

“The objective of is to create an enabling environment for the effective enforcement of the rule of law, and, in accordance with the Constitution of The Gambia, facilitate the inauguration of the President-Elect, Adama Barrow, on Thursday, January 19, 2017″ the statement concluded.