By: Muhammed Lamin Drammeh
The former president and founding leader of the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), Yahya Jammeh, has issued a warning to any member of his party who might be considering running for the position of flag bearer.
According to Jammeh, anyone with such an ambition should form their own party and not try to take over his APRC.
Jammeh released an audio message from his current base in Equatorial Guinea, in which he expressed his support for the party’s council of elders and tasked them with managing the affairs of the party without any rebranding.
He pointed out that nobody will be a flag bearer in the APRC, warning them to better go and create their party.
“Anyone who wants to be the flag bearer, you better go and create your own party, not my APRC. I would like to be very clear. Yes, there is an interim leader, but I vest my powers in them.
“The Council of Elders, and the chairmen, I have trust in them. I am so relieved hearing them,” Jammeh said in an audio.
He warned the current governing body that there would be no alterations made to the APRC’s manifesto. He also disclosed that they would continue to use the manifesto that was utilized to “develop” the country during his 22-year tenure as the President of the Republic of The Gambia.
“Let me make it very clear, there will be no rebranding of the party. It is not going to happen. The party has a manifesto, and the manifesto is very sacrosanct. It cannot be changed. It is what guided us to develop the country.
“There are not going to be any fundamental changes to the party structures. Any other meeting to change the titles that are not in the original structure of the party, those things won’t be accepted” he said.
The APRC is currently a divided party. The legally recognized APRC by the Independent Electoral Commission is led by Fabakary Tombong Jatta, who is currently the speaker of the Gambia parliament. The Jammeh-backed faction is now referred to as ‘No to Alliance APRC”.
