By Lamin Njie
Interior Minister Yankuba Sonko said on Friday anyone who knows him knew he is ‘somebody’ who maintains peace and who respects the rights of individuals, as he responded to those denouncing his tapping as the country’s internal security chief.
President Adama Barrow in August this year appointed Yankuba Sonko as the country’s interior minister after sacking his cousin Ebrima Mballow from the role. The appointment of Mr Sonko, a former police chief, triggered controversy as some Gambians claim he worked with former dictator Yahya Jammeh and that he presided over incidents of human rights violations including the brutal police crack down on top UDP figures in 2016.
Sonko clapped back at his critics in an interview with The Fatu Network on Friday saying ‘almost’ every Gambian has worked with Jammeh, in an attempt to shake off his Jammeh-enabler tag.
The interior minister said: “The question of working [with Jammeh]. Almost everybody in this country has ever worked with Jammeh. Who is in this country who has never worked with Jammeh?
“We all worked with Jammeh but our dealings with him is different. We were dealing with him, we dealt with him in a professional way.”
