By Lamin Njie
Government spokesperson Ebrima Sankareh has slammed reports suggesting President Adama Barrow was nursing the idea of former President Yahya Jammeh returning to the country from exile.
Former President Jammeh has since January 2017 been living in exile in Equatorial Guinea following his humiliating defenestration in the 2016 presidential election after over 20 years in office.
But at a meeting in Sibanor, President Barrow, Jammeh’s nemesis, said the former dictator can come back to The Gambia and live like everyone else.
“His time is over and he will not come back [as president]. This country is his country. He can come back and live like everyone else, that can happen. But for him to be president of The Gambia? That will not happen again,” Mr Barrow said.
Gambians later pounced to interpret the president’s comments with many saying he was planning to allow Jammeh to return to The Gambia.
Government spokesperson Ebrima Sankareh spoke on Saturday on the issue saying President Barrow’s comments were ‘purely’ hypothetical.
“Mr. Barrow told Gambians that even If President Jammeh were to return to The Gambia some day, he could never again be a President and could only live as an ordinary citizen and nothing else. Mr Barrow offered no protection nor any privileges whatsoever as is being bandied around social media and some news outlets. It is totally false and very unfortunate that such a direct statement is deliberately mischaracterized for purely political reasons,” Sankareh said in a statement.
