Abubacarr Tambadou, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, has said he is proud of the country’s achievement in consolidating democracy and rule of law within a short space of time.

Baa was speaking at his farewell press conference as he is expected to take up a high-profile job at the United Nations after he tendered resignation which came as a surprise to many. 

“Today only one and half years later, I am proud of our achievement in this endeavour – no one can now deny that public confidence in this country hasn’t substantially increased.

“During my first engagement with the media immediately after I was sworn in as Attorney General and Minister of Justice, I announced that my principal objective as Attorney General was to restore public confidence in the administration of the judiciary system in the country,” he said

Mr Tamabdou however said this was not going to be an easy task “giving that we were just emerging from a governance environment that was characterised by direct political interference in the judiciary by the previous executive.”  

He accused Jammeh’s regime of hiring “mercenary judges who sent innocent Gambians to jail on the dictate of former president Yahya Jammeh”, adding “the unlawful summary dismissal of judicial officers who dare to make decisions against the state or sometimes for unknown reasons.”

Mr Tambadou on Thursday tendered his resignation as the country’s Justice minister after landing himself a top UN job. He had served as Justice minister since January 2017.

He received international recognition for his Rohingya campaign and won a landmark genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Aung Sang Sui Kyi’s Myanmar. 

Reporting by Adama Makasuba