The president of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh has openly declared his disregard and unwillingness to cooperate with the court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
An article published on Myjoyonline.com said the Gambian president acted angrily when his new secretary of state for Foreign Affairs, Crispin Grey-Johnson, personally went to him of the hearing of an ECOWAS case involving missing journalist Ebrimah Chief Manneh.
President Jammeh is said to have accused the Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa, Prof. Kwame Karikari of working with the Gambian opposition.
Prof. Karikari is no stranger to the fight for press freedom in Africa. VOA reporter Akwei Thompson asked him for his reaction to some of the comments made by president Jammeh.
Professor Karikari said president Jammeh does more than threaten people. “He threatens people in public and then subsequently you find some of them killed.”
He said it was not surprising for Jammeh to accuse people of working for the opposition and against him when all they were doing was demanding that he treats his people in a civilized manner.
Belowe is the Freedom Newspaper story as reproduced in the Ghanaian media last Friday, which sparked the debate. Please read on.
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| Yahya Jammeh - ignores ECOWAS court. |
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In what appears to be utter contempt of the sub-region's highest court of competent jurisdiction, the Gambian leader, Yahya Jammeh, has openly declared his disregard and unwillingness to cooperate with the court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
According to a Freedom online Newspaper source close to the Office of the President, on the eve of the last hearing of the case of disappeared journalist Ebrima Chief Manneh, the new secretary of state for Foreign Affairs, Crispin Grey-Johnson, personally went to the president to give him physical notice of a fax, being a hearing service of the said case the Gambia High Commission in Nigeria had sent.
Grey-Johnson had wanted to seek the opinion of President Jammeh before instructing the High Commissioner in Abuja to take an action of showing up in court with a counsel.
A senior government official who is privy to the discussion between the President and his minister, hurriedly contacted the Freedom Newspaper to expose the anomaly.
According to the source whose name and position we cannot state for the sake of his security, said these were the words of the President: "Let the ECOWAS court can go to hell! If you come to me with such nonsense again, I wil1 sack you and send you to jail. If you don't know your job, I will show you. And also, I heard the lawyer was trying to visit my country, I will show him who Yahya Jammeh is when he comes here.
The professor in Ghana (Prof. Kwame Karikari) is the one fighting me because he is working with some opposition elements. He should never come near Gambia in his life. They are idle and have nothing to do."
The court has set November 20, 2007 for the judgment during which it is expected to issue an order to compel President Jammeh to release Journalist Manneh whose illegal incarceration has now come to about fifteen months.
The source who apparently must have passed the information in a hurry, promised to get back to the Freedom Newspaper with more details of President Jammeh's utterances during his meeting with the new foreign minister, as regards the ECOWAS court.
According to Freedom Newspaper, such utterances may not surprise anybody who is familiar with Jammeh's restlessness when questions of the media are brought to him.
Last year, during his first press conference after winning a highly disputed election, he told a select local and international journalists that "the whole world can go to hell" when a question about the killing of Journalist Deyda Hydara and the closure of The Independent newspaper were put forward.
Jammeh also has the murder of 44 Ghanaians still hanging around his neck.
Source: Public Agenda
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