News just arrived at Faturadio that The Gambian dictator; Yahya Jammeh has fired his Secretary General and Presidential Affairs Minister, Lamin Nyabally few hours ago.  According to sources, The President blamed Nyabally for lack of doctors in Basse.  The sources revealed that Nyabally got in trouble when Jammeh upon enquiring in Basse during the inauguration of a thirty million dalasi health centre in Sabi village, URR as to why the areas is facing shortage of Doctors, was informed by the Health Minister that he did discuss the issue with the Secretary General but no action has been taken since then.

Nyabally was said to be on his way home, kicked out of the tour convoy at the time this report was being prepared.  The health centre in Sabi is said to have 30 beds and was funded by Gambians of Sabi roots in the Diaspora.

Former Secretary General, Momodou Lamin Sabally who is currently the MD of the Daily Observer could be recycled back to his old position opined Gambia watchers.

On another development, Yahya, according to the sources has finally left Basse for Mansakonko where he is expected to have a night stop with members of his tour delegation before proceeding.

Fatu Radio has got irrefutable news that Dictator Yahya Jammeh has been quarantined in Basse since Monday where he is currently secluded in the Presidential Guest House. Presently only the inner circle of the President’s security details are the ones having access to him including a select number of personal doctors.

The Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh has come heavily on Senegal and its leaders for causing what he called “the Gambia’s economic problems.” In a rather blistering speech punctuated by scornful and disrespectful words directed at past and present Presidents of Senegal. President Jammeh who was speaking in the provincial border town of Farafeni in the North Bank Region of the Gambia as part of his Meet-The-People-Tour, accused Senegal but more so it’s Presidents of harbouring serious grudges against the Gambia.

He particularly accused current President Macky Sall of masterminding sinister plots to, in his own words, “not only to cripple Gambia’s economy but to ferment trouble in the country.” Jammeh who did not tell his audience what kind of trouble President Sall is allegedly planning against the Gambia could only say that Gambia is fully prepared for the eventuality. He added “let Macky Sall be warned that we are not afraid of any nation on the face of this earth. Whatever they are planning, they will find us here. We will deal with them mercilessly.”

The Gambian leader further accused Macky Sall of being a “hypocrite and a stooge” for the West saying Macky is one of the few Presidents in Africa where the West constantly engages to ensure that Africa is perpetually trapped in a bondage and in abject poverty. “The Gambia will never be part of such schemes,” he said.

He accused President Sall of lacking in vision and tenacity to develop what he called “a backyard much more a country.” Jammeh said he has even been helping Senegal to attain its development objectives. “We have so far pumped in more than 250 Million US dollars into Senegal in terms of contracts given to Senegalese construction workers,” he said adding “I wonder how Senegal could elect someone like Macky Sall as President?”

Jammeh who appeared and sound wired all along his speech, rambled over his seeming mythical powers where he said he once confronted former President Abdou Diouf and made it categorically clear to him that he Diouf was going to lose the 1997 general elections. Jammeh said “I told Diouf if you got elected then he Diouf should go round the entire Africa and name every dog after me Yahya Jammeh” adding “in fact I also told him that he Diouf would come to know who Yahya Jammeh is when he leaves office which would have been too late for him.”

Jammeh also accused Diouf just like he did with Macky Sall of also constantly closing the borders to sabotage the Gambian economic progress.

In an apparent show of disrespect but which has come to be an embodiment of Jammeh’s traits, the Gambian leader greatly demeaned the personality of former President Abdoulaye Wade with a mockery unbecoming of a statesman.

Jammeh said it was in his first meeting with President Wade that he knew he Wade was not up to anything good for the Gambia. “But I warned him and put it flatly on his face that the fact that he Wade’s head does not have hair spell doom for the region.” Jammeh then continually taunted Wade’s name, his personality and his appearance. In a remark that sent his audience into heavy laughter of mockery President said this of former President Wade: “how can someone whose head could not bear the weight of human hair be tasked with the responsibility of shouldering the affairs of a country.”

He said when President Wade came to power, his first pronouncement was that he did not need the Gambia to mediate in the armed conflict in the Southern Senegalese Province of Cassamance. “And he Wade went further as part of his deliberate policy of confrontation with the Gambia not only to close the border but also to give sanctuary to dissidents and enemies of the Gambia,” Jammeh said.

According to Jammeh, all throughout the presidency of President Wade, he never referred to him Jammeh as Mr President. “Instead, Wade in his policy of provocation always belittled Gambia and its leadership. Even me, he was always calling Yahya Jammeh not His Excellency or Mr President. I refused to accept that and I refused to be belittled,” the erratic Gambian dictator who loves titles said.

President finally made it clear that he is not against Senegalese but their leaders who are always looking for all means possible to wreck our economy and to destabilize our country.

The issue of child beggars in Senegal, locally called “Almud’ or ‘Talibeh’, has become a worrying subject for African civil society organisations as it is said to deny children to education, healthy life as well as encouraging child trafficking.

According to organisations that met in Banjul last week on the sidelines of the ordinary session of the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights, led by the African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights (RADDHO), such acts against the children contravenes articles 4, 7, 5, 12, 14, 15, and 21 of the African Charter on Rights and Welfare of the Child.

Aged between five to fifteen years, these children are almost exclusively boys who study in ‘daaras’ (Wolof for Quranic schools) under Quranic teachers.  Most of these schools do not charge the students for their studies, food or accommodation.  Instead, the children are compelled to spend several hours each day begging in the street, on top of several other hours of learning the Quran by memorization.

RADDHO, a Non-Governmental, non-partisan and secular organization established and operating from Dakar since 1990, met other human rights institutions to “seek for reinforcement of ideas and recommendations to make a stop to the trend of child begging in Senegal.”

RADDHO enjoys a Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations, observer status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the human rights arm of the African Union.

The organisation’s secretary for external relations Mr. Sadikh Niass, described child begging as an act that is in “total violation of the rights of children.”

Niass told fellow civil society activists that despite a decision passed by the concerned committee of African Commission to stop such act, the situation is still remains unabated in Senegal, and its government has not done enough to stop it.

“The committee prefers local remedies to the situation but the international law is preferable to the situation when the local remedies are inefficient,” Niass told colleagues.

Among such recommendations include the return of such children back to their families; that international organisations should facilitate their union with families; that they should be educated, that the state of Senegal to ensure all such religious learning places comply with the proper standard or be closed.

These recommendations are meant to stop child trafficking and impunity, RADDHO said, noting that such enforcement of decisions should involve stakeholders such as marabouts, teachers, police and that the government of Senegal was urged to submit report on the situation.

Madam Mame Couna Thioye, Coordinator at the Department of Women and Children Unit of RADDHO, said her organization decided to step in the matter “because the issue of child begging in Senegal is becoming a big phenomenon.’

She said this begging is having a big impact on children’s abilities and described these issues as ‘frightening’.

In response to these submissions, and giving some guidelines on litigation procedures, Mr Gaye Sowe, Secretary General of Institute of Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) informed the RADDHO team the existence of African Children Charter Project (ACCP) which he said, would address the situation.

Sowe said his office has two cases similar to the issue which are pending at the committee involving Malawi and Cameroon.

“In Malawi, we are challenging the law on definition of a child as child is considered from 16 of age which is a violation while private actor raped a child in Cameroon. It is our responsibility as CSOs to change such situations,” he said.

The issue accoding to Mr Sowe is a concern not only for Senegal, but also its neighbours as children from the Gambia, Mali and Guinea Bissau are all part of it, hence it was apt for other CSOs to partner with RADDHO to solve the issue through collaborative ideas.

Magistrate Ebrima Jaiteh of the Brikama Magistrates’ Court who was picked up at his residence in Madina Salam on the night of November 6th has been released from Police custody. Jaiteh was kept in police custody for over week in apparent violation of the 72 hour limit in the constitution that suspects could be held before they are released on bail or taken to court. Fatu Radio had confirmed that Jaiteh was held at the serious crimes unit of The Gambia Police Force, at the Force headquarters in the capital Banjul.

His arrest, according to sources, is in connection with land case he struck out from his court and transferred to Bundung Magistrate’s court on the basis that his court lacked the jurisdiction. Although he acted professionally, the government still became dissatisfied with his actions and ordered for his arrest immediately after the word got out to The Dictator.

Magistrate Jaiteh has presided over many high profile cases, among them, the case of the Calipha General of Dasilameh, Sheikh Muhideen Hydara and the Alkalo of the village, Buya Touray. Magistrate Jaiteh freed both Hydra and Touray after a long and protracted legal case which was handled by several magistrates. His judgement to free both men stemmed out what he called “prosecution’s lack of credible and compelling.

He further stated that the prosecution has failed flat to proof that the announcement over the national Television sanctioning the Eidul Fitr on a specific day was from The President. He thereby acquitted and discharged the accused persons on counts one and two respectively.

Another case that he presided over was the case of Lamin Waa Juwara, former minister for local government and regional administration, whom he also acquitted and discharged in May 2015.

Magistrate Jaiteh was granted bail by The Brikama Principal magistrate, Hilary Abeke at the sum of D50,000, a little over a thousand US dollars. He is charged with Abuse of office and negligence.

Security sources have confirmed to Fatu Radio that journalist Alhagi Ceesay has been denied access to his family for three days now. Alhagi whose family has been taking meals to him since he was remanded at the Mile II Central Prison has been told that there will no longer be any homemade meals for him until further notice.

No reason has so far been officially advanced as to why such a drastic decision has been taken but for years now the conditions at the state Central Prison has been on the radar of rights groups who described it death trap.

In addition to overcrowding, credible reports have emerged from former inmates where it is alleged that in some instances, prisoners were fed with dead animals.

Family members visiting loved ones at Mile II have also been asked not to go anywhere the main gate of the prison. They were asked to stop on the opposite side of the road and wait to speak with prison officers. Whatever is going on there at the moment is unknown, but Fatu Radio is keenly monitoring the situation.

We have also been informed that the former deputy minister for Agriculture, Ousman Jammeh is being held at the security wing of Mile II for over a month now without being charged with any crimes. He is said to coping and is held in the place as Solo Bojang and many others.

Meanwhile Alhagi Ceesay will appear before Justice Abi on Wednesday November 11, 2015. Many are wondering what will happen especially after both witnesses fled the country and said that they were asked by the state to lie against the poor journalist to implicate him in a crime he has never committed.

But facts have now emerged that after all, Journalist Ceesay is a victim of presidential jealousy after President Jammeh eyed his girlfriend who was later wrapped and employed at the State House as protocol officer to the president himself. The girl has since fled the Gambia accusing the president of sexual molestation.