By: Nyima Sillah
Citizen’s Alliance Senior Strategic Communication Officer, John Moses Jammeh-Sainey has said without mince word that there is no way that President Barrow can offer a blank amnesty to former President Yahya Jammeh through executive powers.
Speaking to this reporter over the weekend, Mr. Jammeh said “To the people who think the government should offer a blank amnesty to former president Yahya Jammeh should know that there are legal limits as to what the government can do. No government has an absolute right to offer amnesty on offenses that are committed against individuals.”
Even, he said, in the Holy Qur’an or Bible “if you offend Allah (SWT) and sincerely ask for forgiveness you would be forgiven. But if you commit an offense against an individual you have to sincerely seek the individual’s forgiveness first before Allah can forgive you. So, there is no way the government can offer a blank amnesty after the release of the TRRC report.”
He stressed that former president Yahya Jammeh should accept and subject himself to the same accountability of the Gambian people who mandated him to rule over their affairs for over two decades as his former motor clearly states – Accountability, Transparency, and Probity.
Mr. Jammeh also explained that former president Yahya Jammeh set the president when he overthrew former President Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara’s PPP-led government and constituted The Agali Commission that held the PPP government officials accountable. In the same vein, the coalition Government which included the UDP and the PPP after winning the 2016 elections constituted the Janneh Commission to also hold the former APRC Government accountable.
“After the 2021 elections that brought in the NPP Government, the Government constituted a Ba-Sambou Commission to hold local Government council officials accountable.”
Mr. Jammeh also said the best that the APRC Party can do for former president Yahya Jammeh is to tell him the truth. “Truth is truth no matter who says it and wrong is wrong no matter who commits it.”
Meanwhile, he strongly emphasized that the government should have broadened the scope of this commission to hold all the government officials accountable, those who have been adversely mentioned in the national audit report from 2016 to date in the spirit of justice and fair play.