Acting APRC leader Fabakary Tombong Jatta has dismissed the matching orders of former President Yahya Jammeh, saying they are “now in charge of the party”. 

Jammeh, who declared himself the supreme leader of the APRC party, yesterday sacked the party’s executive led by Tombong-Jatta for forming an alliance with President Adama Barrow’s National People’s Party without his approval.

The former president currently exiled in Equatorial Guinea made the dramatic announcement during a telephone address to a breakaway APRC faction in Kanilai. 

He ordered the new APRC executive to form alliance with GANU, a political party led by his former attorney general Sheikh Tejan Hydara.

Jammeh’s actions have been widely condemned by loyalists and APRC party bigwigs including acting leader Fabakary Tombong-Jatta.

“APRC is not owned by anyone, it’s Gambia that owns it. Us sitting here will leave one day and you too will take over. 

“No one should be sad or angry. Ignore and let it not make anyone say anything that is said out of anger,” Tombong-Jatta told a rally in Bwiam. 

“What we know since yesterday is calmness, patience and discipline. They also said there is a new committee. That’s not an APRC committee. 

“I think his people who left us to join GANU are those who are with GANU. They would either be independent or be GANU but APRC… I don’t know about the future but it’s us who are in charge of the party today.”

Reporting by Adama Makasuba