By Mustapha Jarju
Former Gambian Interior Minister, Honorable Mai Ahmed Fatty, has stated that there are Senegalese Soldiers in the Gambia that are not serving under the ECOMIG mission.
He claimed that “There was a foreign policy agreement between the Gambian government the Senegal government by signing what they call bilateral agreement, which was signed for the Senegalese soldiers to be in the Gambia to join other troops to strengthen the Gambia`s security.”
“The law and constitution of the Gambia gave power to the president to exercise on foreign policy, and bringing soldiers from other countries to the Gambia is part of that policy and it is also a security policy.” But it is truth that the matter needs to reach the parliamentary as part of the principles of this country and that is the law.
“This is something the government should shy about revealing its truth to the Gambians because what they came for should be cleared to the citizens so that the doubt we are in would not be the case,” he said. “This is the truth and it is the fact,” he added.
“I was not part of the agreement and when the Gambia and Senegal were signing the agreement, I was not aware of the content of the principles based on this agreement I do not understand that therefore I can’t speak more on that. It is not right for other country`s soldiers to be in the Gambia doing the work of the police. The Gambia law did not accept that and if it is happening, it is not in line with the laws of this land. For timbers, we have forest department, we have the police and we have the soldiers this are the people who should protect the laws of the Gambia and if anything happen other than that it is against the law of our land,” he said.