Jammeh’s Emergency Order Is Illegal

One of the leaders of the Gambia’s winning coalition led by President-elect Adama Barrow has swiftly reacted to the country’s outgoing President’s declared state of emergency.

Lawyer Mai Ahmed Fatty, who leads the opposition Gambia Moral Congress, said “an executive directive does not constitute law, and cannot override the law.”

Read below Lawyer Fatty’s written reaction to Yahya Jammeh’s last minute plot to remain in power illegally.

Let me make it absolutely clear: an executive directive does not constitute law, and cannot override the law. Parliament has the power to legislate, yet a statute cannot override the Constitution. Parliament has no legislative competence under relevant legal and factual considerations to concede to this travesty. It cannot oust either the application of, or the effect of the application of Section 63 of the Constitution. Section 34 (1) (b) of the Constitution is unambiguous: it can only be invoked subject to a compulsive precondition – “a situation exists, which if allowed to continue, may lead to a public state of emergency”. The only state of facts is the pompous display of executive lawlessness by the outgoing President. This grievous abuse of the law by Parliament in excess of its powers, amount to a fundamental breach of the spirit and letter of the Basic Law. Therefore, this unlawful declaration, will neither stand, nor will it be respected. It changes nothing.

On the 19th January, 2017, a new government SHALL be enthroned, and Jammeh will either be a former president or an outlaw.”

Ends

6 Comments

  1. Babu Soli

    I HUMBLY DISAGREE WITH THEM!
    I HUMBLY DISAGREE with the declaration of a STATE OF EMERGENCY!
    I HUMBLY DISAGREE with the extension of the 90-day presidential term promulgated by our parliament!
    I HUMBLY DISAGREE with any foreign military intervention!
    I HUMBLY DISAGREE with irresponsible war-like statements from Mai Fatty, Fatoumatta Tambajang, Hamat Bah and some Coalition figures!
    I HUMBLY DISAGREE with the Senegalese-led ECOWAS covert intentions for our country!
    I ONLY AGREE WITH DIALOGUE AND OUR GAMBIAN BLACK MUSLIM AND AFRICAN NATURE OF RESOLVING OUR DIRE DIFFERENCES.
    There is still room for sorting out this political impasse.
    Everyone on line knows me (Babu Soli) as an avowed President Jammeh and APRC supporter. These are based on my personal conscience and conviction and the fundamental human nature of trusting what one sees as objective and productive. That was the course of the President Jammeh governance according to my personal evaluation in the 22 years of his rule; objectivity and productivity.
    However, there is no need for a climate of war. War is hardship: destruction of human life and material welfare. War is an obvious setback to the fabrics of a nation’s welfare.
    I cannot envisage our Peace-loving people fleeing in disarray, women, men, children, the old, the sick and the feeble to become virtual hostages (not refugees) in neighbouring Senegal, the Cassamance region or even in the Guineas (Bissau/Conakry).
    I cannot envisage our doors, shops and businesses closed during an unspecified period of time to give pace and space to rogues and vandals.
    I cannot envisage the closure of our schools, university and tertiary institutions thus denying our children the rights to continuous and uninterrupted education.
    I cannot envisage the closure our health institutions that would invariably deny our sick the right to access the required health care.
    What is worse, however, is the degree of interrelated hazards that most frequently erupt at wars.
    Negative agitations and vituperative language(s) at this eleventh hour of our political predicament/impasse would only incense animosity.
    Putting our case more circumspectly, suppose our Imams and Elderlies, our very young ones(at the age of Mariama/Muhammed Jammeh) flock the streets of Banjul to pull the ears of both President Jammeh and Barrow, wouldn’t we achieve a more viable deal? Of course without the clique of their «advisers» whose only intent and purpose is to rule with the blood of Gambians.
    Jammeh and Barrow alone can strike a deal if left without outside interference.
    My interpretation may sound trivial a bit plausible, but a well-behaved collective Gambian gathering could inevitably achieve a result at this moment of ungenuine stand-off.
    My assertion is squarely based on my unfettered democratic conviction, that, where negotiations can still prevent bloodshed, negotiations should prevail.
    What we are faced with is our long term life-long existence as a nation of very Peaceful people, who at this moment, MUST give away and take in the bitter, sour and crude part of everything in our collective interest for generations to come.
    TOMORROW I WANT TO SEE A GAMBIA SAYING «ALHAMDU LILAHI», grace be to the Almighty Allah(SWT) for granting us sustained PEACE; the uncluttered element in our potential for progress and development!

    • SOLI: Just go away with your hypocrisy. Obviously you don’t mean anything that you are saying here. All you want is Jammeh to continue slowly killing, torturing, and imprisoning Gambians.

      You had no conscience about all the abuses that have been happening all these years. You know for yourself no negotiation is possible with Jammeh.

      Imagine a president, not a rebel leader, threatening to wipe out and depot a significant section of his own population. A president threatening genocide in his own country, and you want any one to be reasonable with such a person. He does not deserve reasonableness and should not be treated with any kind of decency.

  2. I have also evaluated his mode of governance of the past 22years and that is; I will press all resourceful citizens in one hot corner so I can be able to be doing whatever I want in the Gambia without challenge. I will throw out a few white elephant structures here and there to call it a hospital, school or university. Nobody asks me a question what I am doing or want to do because I am the, YAI BOROM (ASTAKHFURU’LLAH). Cleanliness be to Allah’s name SWT.
    I think you @Babu Soli must be one mad one as well trying to act the peacemker at the eleventh hour, when you have already promised the Gambia that their heads will be rolling down the ditch and Jammeh will be sworn in as Gambia’s president for fifth term. I think you are the perfect antidote of the most horrible ill of our society and that is; HYPOCRISY.
    @Babu Soli, loping around in the streets of the West in an atmosphere ot the smell of Western cuisine and perfumes anticipating a Gambians’ ‘give away’ and them taking in the bitter, sour and crude part of an impending havoc looming the nation…..
    Maybe you were never really serious in your serious jokes but hope anyone is in the mood for such goring jokes. Why are many of us Africans so happy in the West despite all our anti-West and anti-colonisation rhetorics, is a misery needs to be unravelled.

  3. Babu Soli

    Modou and Bourne,
    The two lunatic and uncouthed elements who think the Gambia is theirs and should be ruled with the stains of blood on Adama Barrow’s hands. You are shameless and ruthless. If you think Jammeh did wrong in 22 years, you are equally inducting Adama Barrow to do the same wrongs because you sense power within your corridors.
    You either start mending fences for Adama Barrow’s tenure in office, or you will meet the most ferocious opposition ever.
    Elements like you are neither humble nor akin to burying hatchets. If you believe Adama Barrow on assuming office should be vengeful, he will meet his bitter moments and days as well. Keep on with your foolhardiness and think that you and Adama Barrow will gear the Gambia on vengeance.

  4. APRC Party (puppet regime of criminals, traitors and unpatriotic psychopants) will be ban and prominent members liable for treason will be prosecuted.

    End of Kanilai monster Jammeh should effectively mean ending APRC era in Gambian politics with its nasty bloody legacy (of atrocities, criminality, mob rule, bad governance, abuse of power, abuse of The Gambia Constitution, plunder of nation coffers among other crimes; that will be uncovered later.)

    Ban APRC party and declare the party as illegal political party forever! There is no chance for APRC party to be opposition party or participate in Gambian politics again.

  5. Here comes @Dawda! Been a long time didn’t here from you. Can’t say better than what you said above. Maybe the political heavyweights on the ground will show grace on behalf of the Gambians and reconciliate with the atrocious APRC party to enlighten them about how a democracy works.
    You have all reason to think so as most folks do, that they should be banned for life as an illegal party.

    @Babu Soli, I won’t say much to you. You have to watch the type of language you speak to the future generations of the Gambia. You’ve sounded real menacing all the while. A good citizen won’t incite the rolling down of his fellow citizens heads down the ditch by an atrocious state of impunity.

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