By Bubacarr Drammeh

The Gambia gained its independent from Great Britain on the 18^th February 1965. It was not until 1970 that it became a Republic. The first constitution of the country was the 1970 Constitution. The said constitution ceased to exist on 22 July 1994 when the constitutionally elected government was overthrown via a military coup. That led to the suspension of the 1970 Constitution. That marks the end of the First Republic and the 1970 Constitution.

The Gambia was governed by the AFPRC for 2yrs and the laws that were in existence were called military decrees. During that period a constitutional committee was setup to come up with a draft constitution that will be presented to the Gambian people in a referendum. The committee drafted the 1997 constitution and a referendum was conducted in 1996. The AFPRC regime at the time did not want the people of The Gambia to vote yes for the constitution because if the NO votes outweighed the YES, it means the committee will have to work on another constitution which will be presented again for another referendum. This will allow the AFPRC regime to continue ruling the country with their decrees. The people who were eligible to vote at the time voted yes, thus the birth of the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia and the Second Republic.

The preamble of the 1997 Constitution has succinctly affirmed that the 1997 Constitution is the will of the people of The Gambia . It states that

We the people of The Gambia have accomplished a great and historic task. We have had our say on how we should be governed. For this Constitution contains our will and resolve for good governance and a just, secure and prosperous society.

This Constitution provides for us a fundamental Law, which affirms our commitment to freedom, justice, probity and accountability. It also affirms the principle that all power emanate from the sovereign will of the people.

…This Constitution guarantees participatory democracy that reflects the undiluted choice of the people. The functions of the arms of government have been clearly defined, their independence amply secured with adequate checks and balances to ensure that they all work harmoniously together toward our common good.

As we usher in the Second Republic and beyond we give ourselves and generations of Gambians yet unborn this Constitution as a beacon of hope for peace and stability in our society and the good governance of The Gambia for all time…

In addition to the above statement of the preamble, section 1(2) of the 1997 Constitution also stated emphatically that the 1997 constitution is the expressed will of the people on how they should be governed. The said section provides that

The Sovereignty of The Gambia resides in the people of The Gambia from whom all organs of government derive their authority and in whose name and for whose welfare and prosperity the powers of government are to be exercised in accordance with this Constitution

From the above, it is clear that the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia is Gambia’s constitution not Jammeh’s constitution. That is why the 1997 Constitution (see section 5) gives the legal standing to any person (I will interpret this to include anyone resident in The Gambia and not necessarily limited to being a Gambian) who feels that the act of any person (including the President) or authority (including the National Assemble) is inconsistence or contravenes the constitution to file an action before a court of competent jurisdiction. Section 5 of the 1997 Constitution provides that:

A person who alleges that-

(a) any Act of the National Assembly or any thing done under the authority of an Act of the National Assembly, or

(1) any act or omission of any person or authority, is inconsistent with;
or is in contravention of a provision of this constitution, may bring an action in a court of competent jurisdiction for a declaration to that effect.

• (2)  The court may make orders and give directions as it may considered appropriate for given, to such a declaration and any person to whom any order or direction is addressed shall duly obey and carry out the terms of the order or direction. 

• (3)  The failure to obey or carry out any order made or direction given under subsection (2) shall constitute the offence of violating the Constitution and
  • (a)  shall, in the case of the President or Vice President, constitute a ground for his or her removal from office in accordance with section 67; and 

  • (b)  any other person who is convicted of that office shall be liable to the penalty prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly. 


This provision (i.e. Section 5) has been adhered to by Gambians in the past. In 1998, Lawyer Darboe and others filed a case against the government of Yaya Jammeh for violating the constitution. The case is called A N M Ousainu Darboe & Anor v Inspector General of Police & Anor. In that case, the first applicant (Lawyer Darboe) who was the leader and secretary general of UDP commenced proceedings in the High Court of The Gambia invoking the powers of the court under section 5 and section 37 of the Constitution. Darboe and others were seeking a declaration that the refusal of the respondents (the government especially IGP) to grant them permits to hold political meetings or to use loud speakers, without giving reasons, was inconsistent with section 17(2) of the Constitution and the constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression (section 25(a)), freedom of assembly and association (section 25(d) and (e)) and freedom from discrimination on the grounds of political opinion (section 33(3)).

The High Court at first dismissed the application stating that it lacks jurisdiction to preside over the matter. The decision of the High Court was appealed by plaintiffs (Darboe and others) to the Court of Appeal. On appeal, the Court of Appeal held that the High Court has the jurisdiction to preside over the case since the action was commenced under section 5(1) and that the appellants’ allegations are related to the fundamental human rights entrenched in sections 18 to 33 of the Constitution. The case was accordingly referred back to the High court.

The High Court in its judgment held that The respondents’ (the government especially IGP) refusal to issue permits to the applicants to hold political meetings without giving any reason justifiable under the Act (or any other existing laws) is an infringement of the applicants’ rights under sections 17(2), 25 and 33(3).

See also the case of Ousman Sabally v. IGP & 2 ors

The constitution has also given us the right and duty to defend it. Section 6(2) of the constitution provides that:

• All citizens of The Gambia have the right and the duty at all times to defend this Constitution and, in particular, to resist, to the extent reasonably justifiable in the circumstances, any person or group of persons seeking or attempting by any violent or unlawful means to suspend, overthrow or abrogate this Constitution or any part of it. 


The constitution further provides that a person who resists the overthrow, suspension and abrogation of the constitution did not commit any offence.

• A person who resists the suspension, overthrow or abrogation of this Constitution as provided in subsection (2), commits no offence.

The above provisions have indicated one vital thing, which is that this constitution is the will of the Gambian people. The provisions of the 1997 Constitution must be adhered to by every person irrespective of your status, political belief, religious belief etc. There is no indication in any provision of the 1997 Constitution that it is Yaya Jammeh’s constitution. This constitution belongs to us and we must defend it at all times.

For the past 22yrs our constitution suffered abuses in the Jammeh regime. In some instances the regime was challenged (as indicated above) and many a times it was not. I acknowledged the fact that Yaya Jammeh’s regime was the worst era in the history of the Gambia. Due to his brutality, he was termed as one of the most brutal dictator to have ever lived in the surface of the planet. On human rights, Jammeh is accused of ensuring that there was no freedom of expression, association, liberty etc. he used the law enforcement agencies to eliminate anyone he perceived as a threat to his regime. Gambians were killed, tortured, imprisoned, forced to leave the country (exiled), and some disappeared. Jammeh will go on to terrorize Gambians. He put fear in the psyche of the average Gambian. He attacked people based on their religion practice, ethnicity and political affiliation. He is also accused of raping and molesting women and girls. He harassed people in public and once threatened to kill mandinkas.

Everything aforementioned is inconsistent with the 1997 Constitution of the Gambia, thus a grave violation of the 1997 Constitution. These amongst other reasons let to the movement or revolution or whatever you want to call it, that ousted Jammeh. Everything we did in ensuring Jammeh leaves office was done under the name of the 1997 Constitutions. From the nomination process, campaigns period, elections, announcement of results, resistance to Jammeh’s U-turn, ECOMIG and the swearing in ceremony of barrow. During this period we not claimed that the constitution is Jammeh’s constitution. In fact Jammeh was condemned by Gambians, non Gambians and institutions (such as UN, EU, AU, ECOWAS etc) for violating the 1997 constitution of the Gambia (when he refused to step down).

It is therefore wrong to say the 1997 Constitution of the Gambia is Jammeh’s Constitution. The 1997 Constitution is the Constitution of the Gambia and the will of the Gambian people.

I understand that the constitution has undergone several amendments (48 amendments to be specific). In my next article I will discuss the amendments and whether they are good or Bad.

Ndey Jammeh a close relative of former President, Yahya Jammeh who was also responsible for Jammeh’s VIP guests, was seen at the state house this morning, Febuary 6. Staff at the office expressed concern over her presence knowing how close she and her family are to Jammeh

Ndey’s sister, Jimbe Jammeh traveled with Jammeh and his family to Equitorial Guinea where they currently live in exile. Sources say Ndey cried until she fainted the night Jammeh and his delegation departed Banjul.

Security sources say Ndey was in the office this morning asking staff why they want to work with President Barrow, saying she now knows clearly that many supported former President for personal gains. “What is more confusing is the fact that she went straight to the kitchen, met the cooks then went to her former office”   a  source disclosed. “This is serious, only Allah can help President Barrow and his people” the source added.

Ndey Jammeh was dismissed about a year ago but was asked to report back to work in November shortly before The December Presidential elections. She was never officially reinstated, she was asked to report to work without an official letter.

Meanwhile, a group of women, called ‘The Jammeh Kunda Women’ have also resumed work at the state house kitchen Thursday. The women who cook for soldiers and staff there have not reported to work since Jammeh left the country on January 21.”They came on Thursday, cook, dished it out and went home. They are here again today” a source said. The source added that they are worried knowing what some of these women are capable of.

One Awa Jarju an intelligence officer who was attached to the state house was also seen there this morning.

Former Information minister Seedy Njie has returned to Banjul few hours ago on board Royal Air Maroc from Mongomo, Equitorial Guinea. Seedy’s flight landed at The Banjul International Airport in the early hours of Monday, February 6, 2017.

Njie returned to Banjul with one Buba Demba former chief of protocol, who was also part of former President, Yahya Jammeh’s delegation to Equuitorial Guinea where he currently lives in exile.

The two are said to have been isolated and kept in a motel very far away from Jammeh’s residence. They did not have access to him and his family and had limited access to food and other needs. “They followed Jammeh thinking he will give them money, but he never gave them a dime, they seem to be really disappointed with him” a source disclosed to The Fatu Network.

Meanwhile, sources say Jammeh’s mother Aja Asombi Bojang has been complaining to family members back in Gambia that she wants to head home. Former first lady, Zineb is said to be very uncomfortable with the presence of her mother-in law around the house. ‘Do not be surprised if she heads back home soon, she is complaining daily” a source said.

According to internet search, Mongomo is a town in Wele-Nzas Province in mainland Equitorial Guinea, roughly 1km west of Gabon’s Woleu-Ntem Province. The nation’s first president and the current president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo both originated from there. Mongomo, Jammeh’s new home was named a host city of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

By Ajong Mbapndah L

After 22 years, a portrait other than that of former President Yaya Jammeh now adorns the walls of the Gambia Embassy in Washington,DC.

At a solemn ceremony at the Embassy on February 2, Ambassador Omar Faye was joined by staff, a few Gambians and friends of Gambia in unveiling a portrait of new President Adama Barrow.

Gambia is back on the rails and it is time for all hands to be put on deck in writing the next chapter of the country’s history, said Ambassador Omar Faye. Gambians are a proud, noble and a dignified people and that the recent political crisis were resolved without a shot or bloodshed speaks volumes to the political maturity of the people Faye said.

Faye said, President Barrow was speedily building up cabinet and called for unity and a common vision as Gambia starts another very important chapter in its history. Ambassador Faye lauded the support from the international community and from all friends who stood by Gambia in the last few months.

In a sign of growing confidence, visa demands to Gambia from the USA have experienced a surge.

“I have hoped and prayed hard for this moment,” said a lady who told this reporter she had not gone to Gambia for the last twenty years.

“We will continue to serve all Gambians and people interested in Gambia without fear or favor,” Ambassador Faye said as he declared the doors of the Embassy very open. From Gambians who need services, to people interested in investment opportunities in the Gambia, the doors of the Embassy are open, Omar Faye said.

Many Gambians and Africans too a sigh of relief with a peaceful transition that was not very obvious. In power for some 22 years, President Yahya Jammeh was surprisingly beaten by little known opposition challenger Adama in elections last year. Yahya who initially conceded and even called to congratulate Barrow for his election, reversed his own decision and created a political crisis in the country with his refusal to handover. It took a combination of international diplomacy and military action led by the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS), for Jammeh to leave the country. Initially installed in Senegal, President Barrow made a triumphant return the capital Banjul after Jammeh’s departure.

An NYU lab technician forgot his wallet in his apartment — and paid for it with his life when an ex-con neighbor yanked him from an elevator and beat him to death, cops said.

Bakary Darboe, 46, was riding the lift in his Bronx building — after returning home to grab his billfold — when he fell victim to the “completely unprovoked” attack, police said.

“To do this to Bakary, to just kill him like that, we cannot forget,” said the victim’s brother Mbemba Darboe, 61. “We can forgive, but we cannot forget.”

Relatives said the father of six was on his way to Mercy College, where he was taking classes, when he realized he forgot his wallet and returned home to grab it just before 5 p.m. Thursday.
Darboe jumped back into the elevator after leaving his ninth-floor apartment. Now carrying his wallet, Darboe made it to the seventh floor of the building on E. 156th St. in Melrose when the elevator doors opened.

A deranged 40-year-old parolee — identified as Junal Jordan — had been shadowboxing in the hallway, sources said. As soon as the elevator doors opened, Jordan launched into a ferocious attack, sources said.

“The guy is shadowboxing in the hallway,” a police source said. “The elevators open up and he pulls the guy out of the elevator and beats him.”

A security camera captured Jordan dragging Darboe out into the hallway and then pummeling the older man, sources said.
“Please get off me … I can’t breathe!” Darboe screamed at one point, sources said.

The video shows Darboe managing to get back to his feet. He started to stagger away — but the suspect then delivered several blows to the bloodied victim’s head until he collapsed.

Darboe was found dead at the scene in a pool of blood, sources said.

One of his knocked-out teeth was found nearby, along with a bloody backpack, two cell phones and a set of keys. Spots of blood stained the hallway walls.
Cops found Jordan a few blocks away and took him into custody.

The suspect, who had blood on his hands and clothing, admitted to getting into a fight “in his girlfriend’s building.” But he wouldn’t say anything else, police sources said.

Jordan, a career criminal with a long rap sheet, was later charged with murder and manslaughter, police said.
The accused killer has been arrested 20 times since 1993 for many crimes including assault, robbery, reckless endangerment and drug possession, cops said.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison following a 1999 conviction for attempted criminal sale of a control substance.

Jordan was released in 2005 and put on parole until 2008, but he couldn’t stay out of trouble.

He was arrested in 2006 after being charged in a series of robberies in Manhattan. Jordan was sentenced to eight years in prison — and walked free in 2014. He was placed on parole until 2019, cops said.

On Friday afternoon, some 30 Darboe relatives were gathered at the family home mourning the Gambian immigrant who arrived in the United States 12 years ago.

In addition to his job and studies, Darboe was an active member of his mosque and the secretary general of the Gambian Islamic Society, relatives said.

“Every time he came home late he would help me with my homework,” said his 8-year-old daughter Jakong.
“He was very busy but he always had time.”

Mustafa Darboe, 14, sat quietly in the corner on a computer, holding back tears as his sister talked.

“He was just a good guy,” he said of his father.

Brother-in-law Demba Sanyang described Darboe as a “highly educated person” who was heavily involved in the Muslim community.

“We are deeply sad,” Sanyang, 58, said

The doomed man’s neighbors were stunned.

“(I) knew him from dropping our kids at the school bus stop,” neighbor Bademba Diallo, 48, said. “He was a very nice man, always great.”

“It’s very heartbreaking,” he said. “I’m shocked about what happened.”

WITH ROSS KEITH

By Max Bearak

The Washington Post

The 22-year reign of one of Africa’s most eccentric and self-serving dictatorships came to an end last month when the president of Gambia — whose full title was His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh Babili Mansa — finally ceded power to his democratically elected rival and fled to a similarly tiny fiefdom farther south along the continent’s western coast.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema, now his host, has led Equatorial Guinea for 37 years, making him the world’s longest-serving head of state. Both men came to power decades ago in coups, and brutally quashed dissent while enriching themselves and their families. Investigations by activist groups and Western governments have found evidence that both siphoned off vast quantities of money from state coffers. With that money, they lived lavish lives, amassing dozens of expensive cars and houses around the world while the majority of the people in their countries continue to live in poverty.
If their proclivities weren’t already similar enough, it so happens that both men own palatial multimillion-dollar houses right next door to each other, at 9908 and 9909 Bentcross Dr., in a luxurious subdivision of Potomac, Maryland, about 20 miles from downtown Washington.

Bentcross Drive is a ribbon of mansions. Their looping driveways, manicured lawns, tennis courts and swimming pools are guarded almost universally by iron gates with passcodes and security cameras. Prominent signs warn against trespassing.

The subdivision, Falconhurst, is home to doctors, lawyers, business executives and even professional basketball players. Calbert Cheaney, whom the Washington Bullets (now Wizards) picked sixth overall in the 1993 NBA draft, sold 9908 Bentcross to Jammeh’s family trust for $3.5 million in September 2010, according to public property records. A 2013 CNNMoney.com article titled “Where the money makers live,” listed Potomac as the most affluent town of more than 25,000 people in the United States — and Falconhurst is a warren of its richest.

The World Bank’s latest figures indicate the average Gambian earns $460 a year. Equatorial Guinea has the highest per-capita income of any sub-Saharan country, but is so unequal that two-thirds of the population lives in extreme poverty and infant mortality rates are some of the worst in the world.
Neither Jammeh’s nor Obiang’s house had cars in the driveway last week, and D.C.-based activists from Gambia and Equatorial Guinea said that both residences usually remain unoccupied. Sohna Sallah, vice chairwoman of the Democratic Union of Gambian Activists, said that as far as she knows, Jammeh has been to the Potomac house twice since it was purchased, while his wife uses it on a monthly basis for shopping excursions and to see their daughter, who attends boarding school in McLean, Virginia.

The listing for Jammeh’s house on Maryland’s property records portal says it has 11 bathrooms. The house is 8,818 square feet and sits on 2.3 acres of land. Obiang’s house on Bentcross is bigger, at 9,261 square feet, and was bought for $2.6 million in 2000. The Obiangs also own a second house in Potomac that is, relatively speaking, more modest.

In fact, none of the houses is exorbitantly expensive by U.S. standards. But they are only three out of a constellation of villas owned by the two men’s families in locales stretching from Morocco to Malibu, California.

Repeated requests for comment to the ambassadors of both Gambia and Equatorial Guinea on their states’ roles in purchasing or using these houses went unanswered.
Tutu Alicante, a U.S.-based Equatorial Guinean human rights activist, explained why leaders like Obiang and Jammeh would want to buy houses in Potomac in the first place.

“There are big public relations firms in Washington that specialize in catering to dictators, if you can believe it,” he said. “Someone like Obiang comes to the U.S. maybe twice a year, say, for a checkup at the Mayo Clinic and an appearance at the U.N. General Assembly meeting. After the General Assembly meetings in New York, the firms bring them down to D.C. and connect them with corporate leaders and help them whitewash their image with shiny events.”

“The most disgusting days in this country are the days of the U.N. General Assembly,” echoed Kambale Musavuli, a human rights advocate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Banks, P.R. firms, marketing firms falling over themselves to court them.”

One U.S. bank played a key role in helping Obiang launder money from his country’s oil boom into immense privately held wealth. In a 2004 inquiry, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that accounts in Riggs Bank, which closed in 2005, were the destination for Equatorial Guinea’s oil revenue. Senior government officials held more than 60 accounts at the Washington branch of the bank, valued at up to $700 million.

The bank would then transfer massive sums of cash to offshore shell companies it created for Obiang, who could then spend the money on a house in Potomac, for instance. The Senate committee also found that some of Obiang’s money came from oil funds explicitly established to be redistributed among Equatorial Guineans.

Obiang has escaped prosecution in part because going after heads of state presents an array of complications. A Justice Department official who was not authorized to speak with the press and requested anonymity said, “In addition to possible immunity issues, heads of state sometimes have significant control over the degree to which their law enforcement officials can cooperate with U.S. investigators. Moreover, it can be very difficult to convince witnesses and others with evidence of foreign corruption to come forward — they often are worried about their economic well-being, and sometimes even their safety or the safety of their family members.”

On the other hand, Obiang’s son and presumed heir has been the subject of sweeping investigations in the United States, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands regarding his multitudinous assets. In 2014, Teodorín, as he’s known, settled a case brought by U.S. federal prosecutors and agreed to sell a $30 million mansion in Malibu and a Ferrari, but was allowed to keep a Gulfstream jet and $2 million worth of Michael Jackson memorabilia including a diamond-studded glove, a jacket the star wore in “Thriller” and six life-size statues. He also avoided criminal prosecution. In a statement, prosecutors said Teodorín “received an official government salary of less than $100,000 but used his position and influence as a government minister to amass more than $300 million worth of assets through corruption and money laundering.”
The United States doesn’t have an “ill-gotten wealth statute” that would allow investigators to act on the simple suspicion that a government employee couldn’t possibly be earning enough to afford certain assets. So even though Yahya Jammeh isn’t a head of state anymore, it might still be very difficult for U.S. authorities to mount a case for seizing his property.

“To bring a civil forfeiture case, we need evidence of the crime and the link to the asset we seek to forfeit,” said the Justice Department official. Evidence can be hard to come by, but nongovernmental organizations that work in Equatorial Guinea, for instance, have helped U.S. investigators by convincing witnesses of corruption to come forward.

Sallah, the Gambian activist, said she was returning to her country for the first time in eight years to try to collect some of that evidence. She’s hoping that officials from the central bank will be confident enough of Gambia’s weeks-old democracy to help her pinpoint instances of illegal withdrawals Jammeh made from the state treasury.

That would be the first step to challenging Jammeh’s ownership of houses like the one on Bentcross Drive. Jammeh’s house is listed as belonging to “Trustees of the MYJ Family Trust,” which activists like Sallah have long known is tied to Jammeh’s family, but now they can endeavor to make the link tangible. When asked how many other foreign power brokers own property in Falconhurst, Eric Stewart, a real estate broker who has sold houses in Potomac for 25 years, said the common practice of listing caretaker trusts as owners makes it hard to tell.

Stewart is trying to sell the house on the other side of Obiang’s on Bentcross, which currently belongs to Serdal Adali, a Turkish businessman whose company provides “full contingency support to US Military and Coalition forces” in places like Iraq. Adali once served jail time and was barred from Turkish soccer stadiums for match-fixing when he was on the board of the wildly popular Istanbul club Besiktas. Adali bought the house from Ayman Hariri, the billionaire son of Lebanon’s slain former prime minister Rafiq Hariri and heir to his father’s huge construction company.

Falconhurst is flush with money, both ill-gotten and not.

Nixon Clermont, a part-time cabdriver who grew up around Potomac, said he feels a twinge of disgust when he drives around the neighborhood and sees what he takes to be evidence of misused state wealth.

“I’m from Haiti, man. In Haiti, my people can’t find the food to eat,” said Clermont.

“Our ambassador used to live here. Paid for with money that could have saved people. It makes me so angry, man. So sad.”

Julie Tate contributed reporting to this article.

The cache of weapons discovered at former president, Yahya Jammeh’s villa in Kanilai has finally be collected and transported to Faraja Barracks this morning.

The cache which includes lethal weapons were transported in military trucks by the combined ECOMIG and Gambia Armed Forces officials who stored them at a secure place at the barracks.

At the start of the intervention of the ECOMIG forces in The Gambia, there has been concerns about the fate of former dictator Jammeh’s weapons. Credible reports were that, the dictator and his ‘Enablers’ in the army, set up mobile armories embedded in civilian populated areas as part of the broader plan to commit genocide in the country.

The discovery of the Kanilai cache and its transportation to the Fajara Barracks for secure keeping is part of the first initiative to account for any missing weapons from The Gambia Armed Forces armories.