Jammeh should give up his plans to kill Ousainou Darboe
The police threatening to shoot and kill opposition supporters is a bad sign for a country going to the polls in September
The time has come for Gambians to unite to chase monster Jammeh from the Presidency.
EDITORIAL
The Presidential flag bearer of the NRP/UDP party Ousainou Darboe has been tested again by Jammeh's thugs ahead of the elections. The recent fracas between trigger happy APRC thugs and his party militants in the Niaminas is a dangerous signals for our country ailing national security. The APRC is no doubt posed to incite violence ahead of the polls. This nonesense and cowardice act must stop if they want to realize their much anticipated elections free of violence. This regime survived on terror and oppression. Since Ousainou Darboe is committed to salvaging our country from decadence and despotism, he should be bold enough to resist these harassment spearheaded by the Ruling APRC. Darboe should bear in mind that Jammeh will exploit all kinds of intimidation to silence him and his party. As rightly stated by Lamin Waa Juwara freedom is not a gift, but a God given right. This coming elections are crucial to our country's future and Mr.Darboe should be ready to say enough is enough on Jammeh's politics of terror. African local politics is costly and those vying for the Presidency should not be chicken hearted at all. They shouldbe prepared to go to jail, to be killed in the name of toppling a despot through democratic means. Anything short of this, they will be counted as fake politicians who are out to legitimize a totalitarian government.
Pa Nderry M'Bai, Freedom Newspaper, Managing Editor/cum Publisher
Mr.Darboe has long been prevailing on his supporters to respect the rule of law. Yes, such a message is positive, but the regime he is opposing are behaving otherwise. If police officer Malafi Sanyang can pull out an AK 47 assault gun rifle against his followers, what type of precedence Jammeh and his thugs are trying create in the West African country? The Gambia has reached a level where lawlessness is the order of the day. The police who should enforce the law are openly seen to be violating it. Imagine, the Brikama police station refusing to entertain an assault and death threat complaint brought against their own colleague Malafi Sanyang. The NRP/UDP complaining team were asked to leave the station, as the officers refused to entertain their complaint. The next thing they were going to do was to charge the NRP/UDP militants with idle and disorderly conduct. This has been the practice all the time.
For lawyer Darboe to be taken seriously by his followers and his country men, he should be prepared to resist these unfinished violence meted out to his party. He should take a leaflet from the Zimbabwean opposition to organize national strikes ahead of the polls. The Gambian opposition had well founded reasons to take to the streets in view of the electoral fraud committed by Jammeh and his recently sacked Independent Electoral Commission. The opposition should do away with this notion that the army will kill them when they excise their constitutional guaranteed rights for peaceful march. We must be prepared to take on the dictatorship. The Gambian population are pissed off with the numerous press releases without action. It is time for national action.
From our own understandings, the Inspector General wanted to signal Darboe and his followers that they are ready to kill in the coming polls. That they got license from Jammeh to arrest, maim and kill anyone bent on disturbing the so called "peace" as they called it. What's the point of organizing elections when the political field is not level. The IGP is trying to tell Darboe and his followers that they cannot criticize Jammeh in their political rallies, when the likes of Fatou Jahumpa Ceesay, Neneh Macdowl Gaye, Balla Jahumpa and others are trading insults and other hate messages against the opposition. This is the height of hypocrisy . We are not slaves to anyone, whose freedom of speech and association should be curtailed by a criminal government. Mr.Darboe and his followers should walk into the state house and condemn such a political madness creeping into our nation's body politics. The time has come for Gambians to chase these criminals from the Presidency. We must reclaim our country or risked being entangled by a dictatorship who lost sense of direction as far as administering the affairs of the Gambia is concerned.
Jammeh and his APRC are trouble makers, but are the biggest cowards you can find big time. They should learn from the Basse political fracas which led to the unfortunate death of Alieu Njie, a former member of the defunct July 22ND Movement. Njie's death was triggered by the very regime trying to provoke the NRP/UDP party. As the situation appears, President Jammeh is posed to spill blood now and after the elections. The opposition especially the NRP/UDP leaders should refrain from taking chances. It's dangerous for one to take chances under a blood thirsty dictator. They should watch their movements and be prepared to safeguard the lives of their loyal supporters since the police are not ready to police the country. Even it will take them to hire local security firms to provide them with security they should do it. The Gambia is far from being stable. This is the hard fact.
President Jammeh should give up his plans to assassinate opposition leaders. This information was passed to us by credible sources. The Niamina fracas was basically calculated to plung the country into crisis so that he can use his hit men to go for Darboe and other perceived opponents. Spilling the blood of political leaders might render this onetime West African country ungovernable. Jammeh should stop the culture of killing for the sake of national peace. These killings and disappearances will no doubt hunt him in days to come.
Our divided opposition should refrain from attacking each other in the coming polls. The bigger picture and the nation's enemy is Yahya Jammeh. Attacking one another will give chance to Jammeh to further achieve his desired plan to deal with Darboe, Bah, Juwara, OJ , Sallah, Sarr, Jatta and others. If the opposition cannot complement one another's efforts, it should not derail the projects of their sister parties in the opposition. After all, you are all on the same road, that is to see the end of Jammeh's government.
Admitted, the NADD breakaway led to acrimonious relationship between opposition supporters, but we as a nation should not lost track of the fact that the ongoing attacks and counter attacks will not do us any good. The Freedom Newspaper hate to censor the views of NADD and UDP/NRP supporters, but honestly speaking we should focus on the enemy Jammeh and not to shift blames against each other at this hour. What had happened, had happened. Let us move on and salvage our dear country. Along the line Darboe, Sallah, OJ, Bah Juwara and others can come together. This is very possible since our country's future is unpredictable. Let us not allow our emotions override our good intentions for our country. The Gambia is ours. We don't expect outsiders to liberate us from Jammeh's misrule. We must be united to send this monster packing.
During difficult times, people with sound minds don't condone pettiness. They refused to be dragged into unnecessary and useless fights. This is the line of action the Freedom Newspaper operates on and caresless how our perceived enemies feel about us. It is our ardent belief that Gambia's biggest enemy today is Yahya Jammeh. We are not afraid of these rats making noise. It is only God that we are afraid of. We like challenges and will surely emerge victorous God willing. Let us collaborate to fight and expose the enemy through democratic means. Anything short of this, will be unacceptable to Gambians. Our country's political crisis is getting out of hand. The media, politicians and human rights groups have a big role to play in ensuring that the perpetrators of these atrocities are exposed beyond redemption. Let us document Jammeh's crimes before his inevitable fall. We are a nation in crisis. God bless the Gambia and her people.
The editor can be reached at the following addresses:editor@freedomnewspaper.com or panderry_mbai@yahoo.com If you know that it is happening or is about to happen, please contact us. The Freedom Newspaper is your leading and most authoritative source of news. At Freedom, we have the required professionals to serve you round the clock.