The National Assembly must institute impeachment proceedings against President Adama Barrow, Madi Jobarteh said Monday.

President Barrow on Monday fired Ya Kumba Jaiteh as a member of the national assembly. Controversy has abounded of the move.

Political commentator Madi Jobarteh reacting to the development on Monday said “the letter written by the Secretary General Ebrima O. Camara on behalf of the President Adama Barrow is a direct affront on the authority, dignity and legitimacy of the National Assembly hence a direct affront to the very sovereignty of the Gambian People.”

He said: “In the first place the Secretary General is totally inconsequential to arrogate to himself the job of writing a dismissal letter to a National Assembly Member. This is an act of gross insubordination, misconduct and total irresponsibility. The Secretary General has overstepped his limits and he must be held to account, severely!

“Secondly how can the Secretary General write a letter from the Presidency to a sitting National Assembly without putting it on the official letterhead of the Presidency with the national Coat of Arms? Why didn’t the SG use the official letterhead of the Presidency? It means both the SG and the President know that their action is unconstitutional and criminal hence decided to use a mere piece of paper to insult the very dignity and sovereignty of the Republic of the Gambia. That is an impeachable act! By this act alone the Secretary General has demonstrated his total lack of respect for his office and more seriously for a sitting National Assembly Member.

“Thirdly Mr. Camara has grossly broken all protocols by directly writing to a sitting National Assembly Member on a matter like this without first writing officially to the Speaker of the National Assembly. By this letter the Secretary General has transformed himself into a tool of disrespect and shame while further disrespecting the National Assembly as an institution. I urge Hon. Ya Kumba Jaiteh to throw this piece of blank paper letter into the garbage bin where it rightful belongs!

“Fourthly and most seriously, for the President to have taken this decision and to allow his Secretary General to write on a blank piece of paper demonstrates the President’s total disregard and violation of the Constitution and his utter contempt of the National Assembly which tantamount to impeachment. The President should have known that he has no right, authority or power in anyway imaginable to sack a sitting National Assembly Member.

“The fact that the Constitution gives power to the President to nominate a National Assembly Member does not mean the Constitution guarantees him the power to control that National Assembly Member. The moment a nominated person takes an oath of office as a National Assembly Member he or she is no more under the control of any person or authority in the Gambia other than the National Assembly itself. The removal process of National Assembly Members is well spelt out in the Constitution which do not involve the President in anyway.

“I urge National Assembly Members to therefore not only reject this disrespectful and empty piece of paper totally and completely but also to go further to seek the impeachment of the President for this blatant violation the Constitution. If National Assembly fails to impeach the President and punish the Secretary General for their gross misconduct, then the National Assembly would have been the greatest accomplice in the killing of democracy in the Gambia thus constituting the highest level of betrayal of the people of the Gambia.

“The time has come for the National Assembly to stand their ground to defend the Constitution and the Republic as required by them by the Constitution. The instances of violations of the Constitution by Pres. Adama Barrow and his Government are too numerous to count and it is the National Assembly that must put a stop to this misconduct once and for all by impeaching this President.

“Finally, members of the Cabinet must bear in mind that they bear equal responsibility for the decisions and actions of the President hence they must not stand aside to watch such blatant violation of the Constitution to take place. Ministers with conscience must either tell the President the truth to immediately withdraw this blank paper letter or they resign. Ministers must be seen to defend the Republic of the Gambia against the whims and caprices of one person regardless of his position. I would expect the Minster of Justice Abubacarr Tambadou to be the first to resign!

“We must not allow one man to become a despot over our heads once again as we allowed and created Yaya Jammeh became a dictator!”

By Lamin Njie

Ya Kumba Jaiteh on Monday said she found a letter of termination in her national assembly letter box.

The nominated national assembly member has been fired by President Adama Barrow.

Reacting to the development, Ms Jaiteh told The Fatu Network she has not been afforded any explanation.

“This is even funny to me. I have no idea [of why I’m removed]. The letter is all I got,” she said.

At least 30 members of the National Assembly on Monday met to discuss Ms Jaiteh’s sacking.

“The president has no powers or authority to dismiss any member of the national assembly and that it is unconstitutional nor is it in the spirit of constitution to revoke the nomination of any member of the national assembly,” the lawmakers said in a declaration.

“The national assembly is therefore not recognising or accepting the purported revocation of the nomination of Honourable Ya Kumba Jaiteh and considers it null and void.”

By Lamin Njie

Majority leader Kebba K Barrow has lashed out at President Adama Barrow over the firing of a nominated national assembly member Ya Kumba Jaiteh.

President Barrow on Monday terminated Ms Jaiteh who he hand-picked two years ago to be a member of the national assembly.

Reacting to the president’s move on Monday, Kebba Barrow the national assembly member for Kombo South who is also the majority leader told journalists in Banjul it is their integrity that is at stake.

“This is a national issue, our integrity is at stake. This is The Gambia that we have fought for until 2016 and nobody can come and change that. We don’t want any self-perpetuation in this country,” he said.

The majority leader said the constitution is the “supreme law of our land and it is very clear on the nomination and the dismissal of national assembly members.”

A US-based Gambian Momodou Ndow has asked President Adama Barrow to grow a pair and terminate serving members of the Gambian army who are implicated in acts of torture and murder.

“The Army is directly under Barrow’s control as Commander In Chief and he doesn’t have to wait for the commission’s recommendations to fire anyone. If I am your boss and you get implicated in torture or murder, I will fire you right away,” Ndow said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

A section of the Gambian public has been calling for the dismissal of all serving military personnel whose name have been mentioned at the TRRC, to have been culpable of acts of torture and other human rights abuses during former president Yahya Jammeh’s 22 years rule.

According to Ndow, the commission’s recommendations are more about who will be prosecuted.

“Barrow can fire these people based on the fact that they are implicated in serious crimes. If not, he might even create a hostile work environment for them! I would definitely not want to work with someone who’s implicated in heinous crimes of human rights violations. They should be fired if Barrow wants a healthy work environment in the army.

“Who wants to be seen with alleged executioners? Heck, am even kicking myself for knowing Alhagie Martin and the Singhateh brothers back in the day. Had I known they would turn out to be monsters, nekon dumalen buga hamm sah! Rotten lot! Smh,” he said.

By IOM

The voluntary return of Gambians to their homes is averaging about 143 men and women per month since the start of 2017, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported this week, or the equivalent of one medium-sized charter flight every four weeks.

As of 8 February 2019, 3,668 Gambians have been assisted to voluntarily return home under the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration since the start of 2017. Over 70 per cent of these individuals were returned just from Libya, with another 25 per cent coming home from Niger. The remaining 5 per cent came home from Mali, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia.

Almost two-thirds of all returnees have already received their reintegration assistance. Jalika is one of the 2,097 Gambian returnees who received reintegration assistance from IOM in The Gambia after she returned from a perilous journey across the desert. Upon voluntarily returning from Niger in March 2018 with her 10-year-old daughter, she received grocery goods which allowed her to open her own shop.

“I am happy to be back home safe and sound,” she said. “After some ups and downs, IOM helped me stabilize my income. I want to expand the shop with more goods and get my son to work in the shop.”

Within six months after the return of many Gambian migrants, counseling sessions with the returnees aim to tailor reintegration assistance to their specific needs, interests and skills based on the available opportunities in the country. Returnees classified as vulnerable cases, such as Jalika, are provided expedited assistance within two to four weeks. Close to 90 per cent of assisted Gambian returnees opt to establish their own microbusiness mainly in retail (39 per cent), construction (31 per cent) and transport (13 per cent).

IOM in The Gambia supports the reintegration of returnees through a holistic approach, addressing both migrants’ and their communities’ economic, social and psychosocial needs. Reintegration assistance may come in the form of medical and psychosocial support, support to set up or strengthen a small business, support to pursue education or vocational training, support for job insertion or referrals to other services available in the country.

This assistance forms part of the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration. Launched in November 2017 with the funding of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, the initial target for The Gambia was to facilitate the voluntary returns and reintegration of 1,500 individuals over a period of three years. Less than two years after the launch, that target has been significantly exceeded.

Voluntary return options are an important protection measure for vulnerable and stranded migrants who are facing exploitation or abuse along the migration routes and who wish to return to their countries of origin but do not have the necessary means to do so. Returns are done at the explicit request of the individual returning, who has the right to pull out at any time of the process.

While IOM is not involved in or does not provide any financial contribution to forced returns, migrants who are forcibly returned may nevertheless find themselves in vulnerable situations and in need of assistance and protection as much as any voluntary returnee. Under certain conditions and safeguards, IOM can provide post-arrival and reintegration assistance to vulnerable migrants who were forcibly returned.

“The EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration in The Gambia serves a threefold purpose: saving lives by assisting those en route, offering voluntary return assistance to those who want it, and providing reintegration support to returning Gambian migrants and their communities,” said Ambassador Attila Lajos, Head of the EU Delegation to The Gambia.

“Essentially, the Joint Initiative is about making sure that the migration process is safer and better managed, and that migrant rights and dignity are respected,” he added. “Personally, I am very proud of the interim results achieved so far by these joint efforts by the EU, IOM and the Gambian government. Saving 3,668 Gambian lives and already assisting almost two-thirds of them to find their way to make it in The Gambia is a great achievement which the country can be proud of.”

IOM also offers returnees the option to venture into collective or community-based projects. The Gambia Returnees from the Backway Association, an organization formed by returnees while in detention in Libya, embarked this year on a collective poultry project for 12 members and was supported by IOM through a two-day training on agribusiness, financial management, conflict management and leadership.

“Facilitating the voluntary returns of over double the initial target is a huge milestone for IOM in The Gambia. Moving forward, we are hoping to diversify the types of industries returnees engage in for their reintegration, enhance referrals to existing vocational training programmes, and further link economic reintegration to psychosocial support,” said Fumiko Nagano, IOM Chief of Mission in The Gambia.

The EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration is funded by the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa and implemented in close collaboration with 26 African countries. The Joint Initiative facilitates orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration management through the development of rights-based and development-focused policies and processes on protection and sustainable reintegration.

For more information, please contact Miko Alazas at IOM The Gambia; Tel: +220 330 3168, Email: [email protected] or visit www.migrationjointinitiative.org.