Jammeh Fires Cabinet , To Step Down As Barrow Expels Him From The Gambia
The Oasis Reporters
January 21, 2017
It was all drama in the Gambian capital Banjul yesterday after the swearing-in ceremony of Mr. Adama Barrow in the Gambian embassy located in Dakar, Senegal.
When the news filtered into Banjul and the countryside, wild celebrations commenced under the watch of military patrol vans who showed no inclination to apply force in dispersing the crowd.
The Gambian cabinet counted their options and quickly tendered their resignation letters to President Jammeh.
Angered, he fired the entire cabinet.
Without Ministers and an unwilling military to back his actions, Yahya Jammeh promptly agreed to step down from office, more so as the troops of the armies of Senegal and Nigeria intensified their patrols.
Both countries are regional powers in West Africa, forces that Jammeh would not want to confront.
On hearing the news, newly sworn in President Adama Barrow operating from his country’s embassy in Dakar, swiftly issued a proclamation expelling ex President Jammeh from the Gambia and was said to have spoken to President Buhari of Nigeria, asking that he grant Jammeh asylum, until when he can request for his trial over human rights abuses and the obstruction of democratic transition.
Although both Buhari and Barrow are of the same ethnic Fulani stock, it is not yet known whether the Nigerian President has accepted the request yet.
Commentators say he might, because Nigeria has always been the dumping ground for renegade West African leaders like Yommie Johnson from Liberia, the late Foday Sankoh of the Revolutionary United Front, RUF in Sierra Leone and also Charles Taylor of Liberia amongst many others.
