Former Gambian official Jammeh ignores the president’s campaign warning News

In a controversial intervention, exiled Yahya Jammeh speaks remotely at a public meeting of the accepted candidate, accusing him of “destroying” his successor.[ing] country’.

Former Gambian exiled leader Yahya Jammeh has failed to take into account the fact that incumbent President Adama Barrow is not involved in the country’s election campaign ahead of the elections early next month.

In a controversial move, Jammeh spoke at a public meeting on Thursday night at Mama Kandeh, the presidential candidate he approved in the December 4 election. six competitors, Including Barrow, are competing for first place in the country.

Jammeh, whose 22-year tenure was marked by extrajudicial killings, torture and forced disappearances, refused to defeat Barrow after the December 2016 election. , Was forced to flee to Equatorial Guinea in early 2017.

Asking the Gambians to protect him and Kandeh, Jammeh accused Barrow and his allies of “figuring out” the 2016 polls and accusing his successor of “destroying the country in just four years”.

“I want to make sure … if you vote for us, you’ll have everything I told you,” he said at the meeting.

“That’s free education, free medical care for all Gambians … and Gambia will develop to the point where it will be one of the most developed countries in the world.”

Earlier this week, Barrow threatened Kandeh with legal action if he continued to play Jammeh’s recordings at campaign events, though he did not say which law he was violating.

“Yahya Jammeh is in exile. He is not allowed to participate in our politics, ”local media said.

“If you call him, give him a chance to talk here and create trouble, I warn Mama Kandeh, who is the head of the party. We will notify the Independent Electoral Commission to issue a warning. ”

Jammeh still has significant political support in the Gambia. His role in the country of the future, as well as the issue of justice for crimes committed under his rule, are two major issues ahead of the election.

Witnesses have given harsh evidence of state-sanctioned torture, death squads, rape and witch-hunts, often at the hands of the “Junglers” who acted as Jammeh’s death squad.

Jammeh seized power in Gambia in 1994 as part of a bloodless military coup. He was then repeatedly selected in controversial circumstances, until he was defeated by Barrow five years ago.

Barrow’s candidacy is controversial in itself. He initially said he would only serve for three years as a transitional leader, but then decided to turn the tide and run for re-election.

Earlier this year, his National People’s Party signed a controversial alliance with Jammeh’s party, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), to garner more votes, a move that Jammeh allegedly rejected.

Critics of Barrow have feared that the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Committee, which was set up by its predecessors to address human rights violations, and has yet to release its findings, despite the end of hearings, has been nothing but a bad thing.