Opposition APRC has said that it will recapture State House in the next presidential elections.

The party made this known at a rally in Brikama on Saturday that brought together hundreds of its supporters across the country.

Speaking at the rally, Fabakary Tombong Jatta, the interim party leader of APRC said the rally has demonstrated that “it is only the next presidential election that is between APRC and Yahya Jammeh from going back to State House.”

“People do ask whether Jammeh will come back or not, I want to tell you that you should ask when Jammeh should comeback but not whether he should come. This is his country and nothing can stop him from coming to this country,” he added.

He however, renewed his called for the Independent Electoral Commission chairman to resign, adding that giving all what the IEC boss said after Jammeh was defeated they do not have confidence in him anymore and that they deem any election he leads as not transparent.

Musa Amul Nyassi, National Assembly Member for Foni Kansala, said that “APRC will rule the Gambia again ‘At all cost’, there is nothing that can come between them and the Statehouse.”

He also debunked claims that his party used to bring people from Senegalese southern region of Cassamance to vote for them during presidential elections, saying when one is on top your enemies will always come up allegations and counter allegations just to tarnish your image.

He said: “The APRC is ready and nothing can come between us and the State House. Any party that want to be part of the next government should come and join the APRC if not you will have no chance of making it in the next government.”

He said despite all the smear campaign against the former ruling party the party’s support remains relatively strong and unaffected.

The former APRC Banjul North parliamentarian, Lai Saine asserted that former President Jammeh is a Gambian and nothing can stop him from coming back to the country

Dodou Jah, APRC deputy spokesperson, said the Coalition government is making a big mistake by continuously keeping Jammeh in exile.

It’s one of the most popular fast foods in the world, but it seems that eating fried chicken comes with some worrying risks.

A new study has found that eating deep fried foods, including chicken and fish, increases the risk of early death.

Researchers from the University of Iowa found that one serving or more of any fried foods each day increases the risk of death by 8% compared to eating none.

Worryingly, the study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) , found particularly strong links with fried chicken and fish – two of the most popular takeaways in the UK.

It found that one or more servings of fried chicken a day was linked to a 13% higher risk of death from any cause and a 12% higher risk of heart-related death compared with no fried food.

Meanwhile, one or more servings of fried fish or shellfish a day was linked to a 7% higher risk of death from any cause and a 13% higher risk of heart-related death.

Experts also found a link with even fewer servings of fish and chicken.

The findings held true even when other factors such as exercise levels were taken into account.

The research followed 106,966 women aged 50 to 79 who enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study between 1993 and 1998.

Over an average 18-year follow up, 31,558 of the women died, including 9,320 from heart problems, 8,358 from cancer and 13,880 from other causes.

The authors, led by a team from the University of Iowa in the US, concluded: “Frequent consumption of fried foods, especially fried chicken and fried fish/shellfish, was associated with a higher risk of all cause and cardiovascular mortality in women in the US.”

They added: “We have identified a risk factor for cardiovascular mortality that is readily modifiable by lifestyle and cooking choices.

“Reducing the consumption of fried foods, especially fried chicken and fried fish/shellfish, could have a clinically meaningful effect across the public health spectrum.”

The researchers found no specific link between cancer deaths and eating fried foods.

Those women who ate the most fried food tended to be younger, non-white, less educated and on a lower income.

Those eating the most fried foods also tended to eat fewer vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, and more sugary drinks, nuts, salt and red and processed meat.

Tracy Parker, senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said that simple changes in how foods are cooked can make a big difference to heart health: “Fried foods are usually higher in calories, fat and salt, and portion sizes are often larger – especially when you eat out or order in.

“And if you eat a lot of fried food then it often follows that your wider diet and lifestyle could be healthier. This is a recipe for trouble, which can lead not only to weight gain but other health issues, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes – all risk factors for developing heart and circulatory diseases in later life.

“The good news is that using healthier cooking methods at home – such as baking, grilling or roasting, and choosing healthier options while eating out – are simple changes that can make a big difference to your heart health.” (Mirror)

By Lamin Njie

National Assembly Member for Bundungka Kunda Bakary Njie has said that it is his belief that President Adama Barrow will accept to step down in December.

The United Democratic Party parliamentarian speaking to The Standard newspaper in an exclusive interview said President Barrow “is not hungry for power and he is very contented.”

“I think it is premature to say President Barrow will go for more than three years. He is his own man and I know that the promise he made to the Gambians, he is going to keep and fulfill,” Njie told The Standard.

Seven Gambian political parties two years ago engendered a united front and chose President Barrow as their candidate for a presidential election held on December 1, 2016. The parties had agreed that their candidate will serve as president for only three years.

But the stakeholders including President Barrow who ran as an independent candidate are rowing over the deal which will run out in December.

A source close to the Presidency told The Fatu Network on Friday the President is of a mind to stay beyond three years.

The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has said that it will next month embark on a meningitis immunization campaign.

The Ministry of Health said it plans to immunize at least 400, 000 Gambian children between the ages of one and seven.

Speaking at a press conference held at the offices of National Malaria Control Program, Sanjally Trawally, acting director at the ministry of health promotion said: “Meningitis is deadly disease and mainly affects the brain. It affects the membrane but it’s preventable.”

Officials urged parents to come in their numbers and get their children immunized as they noted that immunizations would hold at community rendezvous, health centers a, markets and school ground across the country.

Buba Darboe, program manager at expand program on immunization added that they aimed to introduce immunization and strengthen it within the country, adding that Gambia is a belt of meningitis countries in Africa.

Buya Jallow, immunization officer at UNICEF added: “We want to ensure that every child receives this vaccination, the vaccination is of high quality.”

According to officials, December and June are the most prone months to the disease and that it is a respiratory disease that claimed the lives of nine people in 2012 in the country, adding that the disease could cause hearing difficulties and at times kills if not rapidly cured.

In 2013, such camping was launched in the country that targeted ages of 1-29 and officials described that as successful.

A man has died after reportedly slitting his own throat in a suspected suicide case.

Sheriffo Sonko is said to be mentally unhealthy and after been missing for a while was found dead in Batokunku with a bread knife believed to be used in taking his own life, police confirmed to The Fatu Network on Thursday.

“The case is being investigated as a suspected suicide case as reported  on 17th January,  with complainant named Lamin Sonko who is an elder brother to the deceased. Police are investigating circumstances surrounding the incident,” police spokesman Lamin Njie said.

By Lamin Njie

The spokesperson of the Gambia Armed Forces on Thursday said the army has issued a strict warning to soldiers who were given t-shirts of President Adama Barrow.

Deputy political adviser to President Barrow Dou Sanno on Thursday pulled near a drugs store in Westfield and doled out t-shirts embellished with photos of President Adama Barrow. His action has prompted strong scrutiny.

The spokesperson of GAF Major Lamin K Sanyang who had earlier denied the soldiers receiving t-shirts told The Fatu Network: “It’s just now that the story is becoming clearer to us because the soldiers have already reported back to Fajara. Actually, while they were cleaning the road, Westfield to Tabokoto going to Banjul, just by Stop Step, people were cheering them up and then all of a sudden a vehicle stopped, somebody came out and then gave them a packet of, a packet that contains something that looks like a t-shirt.

“So, the senior man on the ground was given and he put it on the bus that they came with so until they were done. They went to the Barracks and handed over these items to their commanding officer. So, when he looked at the t-shirt, looked at what is inside the packet it turned out what it looked like t-shirts with the picture of Senegalese president His Excellency Macky Sall and our President His Excellency Adama Barrow. And also at the back of the t-shirt was the bridge, the Senegambia Bridge that was just inaugurated and also written at the back ‘21th January 2019’.

“I think the t-shirts have to do with the opening ceremony of the bridge. So in a nutshell that was what happened. They didn’t even know who gave them this t-shirt as reported by your paper that it is Dou Sanno. Some of these people, they don’t even know him. Even myself I don’t even know him. So that was what happened.

“But when they got this package, the standard procedure, you don’t just reject it outright like that. Because that’s also not you know I don’t know how you call it. It is not Gambian sort of. It may be frowned upon because we don’t know what it entails. But then they looked at it, it was not looking threatening.

“So they took it, put it on their bus but then nobody even wore any of the t-shirts or whatever until when they got to the camp and showed it to their CO who took it and then they realized that this is about the opening of the bridge in Farafenni.

“The packets were given to the men and then they were strictly warned like because it’s not part of our military attire so if they can like probably give it to their family members or friends or loved ones but they may not be worn during working hours.”

By Lamin Njie

Dou Sanno has said that he doesn’t think it’s a crime for him to distribute t-shirts emblazoned with President Barrow’s photo to military personnel.

Mr Sanno stated this on Thursday while confirming handing President Barrow t-shirts to a group of Gambian soldiers.

He exclusively told The Fatu Network: “Yes, I gave them t-shirts. I want to tell those people what’s right, what’s right, what’s right. Today even if you do something good for people, they will say it’s wrong.

“But I don’t see anything wrong in finding soldiers working – work that’s supposed to be done by people and you feel happy about it and you take out something which is a t-shirt and it’s not a t-shirt that belongs to a political party, a t-shirt that you know has no party symbol…

“It’s a t-shirt of the President with regard to the occasion that we came out of. It’s a t-shirt emblazoned with the development [activities] that we have with regard to the bridge. So that, man, to take that out to give it to them to tell them, ‘take this and give it to your families to wear it.’

“This is not politics. We don’t have a political party. We are not in the time of politics. We don’t have time for politics. Nothing absolutely. What I gave them is Senegambia Bridge. They are soldiers. They are the people I gave it to and they are people who are Gambians and I think they are entitled to it.”

By Lamin Njie

Former Gambian army captain Ebrima Cambi has told the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission that life was no longer the same when he barred former president Yahya Jammeh from using a seized vehicle.

Mr Cambi was a captain in the Gambia National Army responsible for logistics in the early 1990s. Former president Yahya Jammeh who was the head of the military police was taking orders from him at the time.

“Well, he’s known for disobedience. We all know that. Stubborn. Strong-headed. So, he was not taking instructions readily,” Mr Cambi said of Jammeh.

“However, the straw that broke the camel’s back was that the soldiers went on an exercise and apprehended some people with cannabis in their vehicle and this vehicle was arrested, taken to the military police where he was and he started using that vehicle, driving that vehicle around in town. I had to call him and say you must stop. So I stopped him from driving that. Since that day we had this animosity, he didn’t like my friendship again.”

By Lamin Njie

Deputy political adviser to President Adama Barrow Dou Sanno has handed out dozens of t-shirts to men of the Gambia Armed Forces, The Fatu Network has learnt.

Mr Sanno on Thursday pulled his car near Stop Step Pharmacy in Westfield and doled out t-shirts emblazoned with President Barrow’s photo to a group of Gambian soldiers, a source told The Fatu Network.

The soldiers were on a clean up exercise of the highway, the source added.

Dou Sanno is one of President Barrow’s closest aides. In an interview with The Fatu Network last year, Sanno said he has known and has been friends with President Barrow for a very long time.

Meanwhile the spokesperson of the Gambia Armed Forces Major Lamin Sanyang has told The Fatu Network that the soldiers are from Fajara Barracks.

“It’s Fajara that is there doing the cleaning. But there is no one among them who is wearing those t-shirts. What happened is there’s this civilian who works along that road just next to this betting shop who normally shouts like even in the morning when people are passing he will be shouting, ‘Barrow, Barrow.’ So I’m sure when he saw the soldiers there, he is like trying to fire them up,” Major Sanyang told The Fatu Network on the phone.

A former bodyguard at State House has told the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission that he knew he must have been reported by former army chief Lang Tombong Tamba when a group of soldiers including him wanted to block Yahya Jammeh and other soldiers from taking over State House.

Tijan Touray in a tell-all via Skype to the TRRC said on July 22, 1994, both the coupists and guards at State House were armed with rifles but Lang Tombong Tamba said, “we are all soldiers and to avoid bloodshed let’s just allow them to enter.”

“When I heard that I started to walk away and I walked very fast. I know that this was not right,” Touray who lives in the United Kingdom said.

The former military officer said he, Kebba Sonko and others had a meeting with the aim of getting rid of Yahya Jammeh and his junta men but that Lang Tombong Tamba kicked against their plan.

“Lang said we can’t do this…that would cause bloodshed. These people have taken over the State House. I was charged for treason for joining Sir Dawda Jawara, I know I must have been reported by Lang Tombong Tamba,” he added.

A former body guard to former president Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, Tijan Touray, has labelled a group of soldiers who staged a coup against President Jawara as rebels.

“Rebels I would call them-they were like rebels- they turn in out their berries…you couldn’t identify who is a soldier or from others. If there was a resistance the coup wouldn’t have been successful,” Touray testifying before the TRRC via Skype on Wednesday said.

Touray described the 1994 coup as a mutiny as he added that Jammeh couldn’t organise a coup because he was not organise and that Jammeh organised only his friends.

Tijan, who was an ex-corporal at the defunct Gendarmerie, further described former president Jammeh during those days as not taking orders from his senior officers and that he swore too much.

He added: “The way he speaks, he swears a lot and he doesn’t take orders from senior officer. He works like a bandit sort of –he was a radical definitely.”

He told the commission that if ex-captain Turo Jawneh was serving as the commander at State House, 1994 coup wouldn’t be successful, adding that Turo was a dedicated and committed commander who loves his nation.

Pope Francis flew to Panama on Wednesday to start a six-day trip, during which he will preside over the World Youth Day, a Catholic youth festival.

Francis’ plane took off from Rome’s Fiumicino airport shortly before 10.00 a.m. (0900 GMT) and was scheduled to land at Panama’s Tocumen airport at 4.30 p.m. (2130 GMT).

“I am leaving for the World Youth Day in Panama.

“I ask you to pray for this very beautiful and important event on the path of the Church.

“Before leaving his Vatican residence, Francis had a meeting with eight refugees hosted by a Catholic centre in Rome,’’ the Vatican said.

From Feb. 21 to Feb. 24, Francis is due to host a summit with Head Bishops of National Catholic Church organisations from around the world to discuss the child abuse crisis. (dpa/NAN)

A faction in the People’s Progressive Party has called for the resignation of Papa Njie as leader of the party.

PPP has been thrown into a state of crisis following its landmark congress held last month. At the congress, newcomer Papa Njie emerged as the new leader of PPP but his emergence is shrouded in controversy.

A faction comprising chairmen, women, elders and youth members of the party is demanding the resignation of Mr Njie and his entire executive.

The faction said in a communique after a meeting held in Bakau: “We, the Chairmen and the Chairwomen, elders and youth members of the PPP meeting at the Conference Hall of the President’s International Youths Award Scheme in Bakau, on Saturday 19th January 2019, wish to declare as follows: Noting the fraudulent and irresponsible conduct of the sixth congress of the PPP held at Kanifing from 28th to 30th December, 2018 that showed no regards or respect for the tradition, established practice and procedure in the conduct of the Party’s Congresses; Noting the deliberate and cynical attempt to impose a non-party member as the Secretary General of the Party contrary to section 3-(1) of the Party’s Constitution; The deploring the registration of non-party members as delegates who voted in the elections of the last Party Congress in violation of Article 8 of the Party’s Constitution; Determined to safeguard the values, principles, legacy and integrity of the Party; hereby declare as follows:
Condemn as fraudulent the results of the elections held at the Sixth National Congress; Request that the leadership that emerged from these elections resign immediately; Request that Party members promoting actions aimed at dividing the Party desist forthwith from such action; Endorse Alhaji Yahya Ceesay as the Interim Chairman of the Party; Request the immediate establishment of the Secretariat and Party Bureau to spearhead the political rejuvenation of the Party;
Finally, select a special Task Force to oversee the entire reorganization of the Party.”

By Lamin Njie

A former bodyguard of former president Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara has said that former president Yahya Jammeh was kicked out of State House while working there as a member of the State Guard.

Tijan Touray was a member of the Crack Unit, an elite close protection group at State House between the late 80s and early 90s.

And testifying before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission on Wednesday via Skype, Touray said Jammeh was moved based on his attitude.

“I once had a chat with Daba Marenah when Yahya Jammeh was moved and he told me that he is not trustworthy and his attitudes around the president were unacceptable,” Touray told the commission.

“…The way he speaks, he swears a lot and he doesn’t respect any of the senior officers. He doesn’t take orders from anyone who seniored him. He works like a bandit sort of.”

Touray who is based in the United Kingdom told the commission the current commander at State House Turo Jawneh was the commander at time Yahya Jammeh was misbehaving.

“He seniored Yahya Jammeh at that time. But they were all the same rank but Turo Jawneh was first promoted, well before Yahya Jammeh,” he said.

The former corporal in the long-disbanded national gendarmerie said Modou Njie was the general commander “but he had some problems when he travelled with the President to the United Kingdom.”

“It was the time he was caught with an arm which he hasn’t declared to the customs whiles in the UK. For that reason, he was arrested and detained so he couldn’t come back for a while. He was later released but Turo Jawneh took over,” he said.

By Lamin Njie

A top United States-based Gambian Imam Momodou Lamin Ceesay will arrive in The Gambia on Saturday January 26.

Imam Ceesay, who lives in Michigan, is visiting the country for the first time since 2003.

The prominent Islamic cleric who hails from Jarra Tonyataba has been living in the United States since he first arrived in that country in 1998.

He was one of the top Imams who used the pulpit to speak against dictatorship in The Gambia.

Imam Ceesay will arrive in The Gambia on Saturday January 26, 2019 to take part in a Siyareh, a major Islamic gathering.

According to Imam Ceesay, he will also use the visit to meet with political and religious leaders to proffer ways of moving the country forward. He will also visit mosques across the country.

Meanwhile Imam Ceesay runs a foundation in The Gambia called The Imam Ceesay Foundation which offer humanitarian assistance to Muslims.