A group of Gambians has launched a petition against the nomination of the country’s foreign minister Dr Momodou Tangara to the post of Commonwealth Secretary General.

The group is targeting 500 signatures and so far 320 people have signed the petition which is set to be sent to the Chair-in-Office of the (CHOGM), the Commonwealth Secretariat, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and relevant authorities of the Commonwealth in an attempt to quash the latter’s nomination.

The group believes that opposing Mr. Tangara’s candidacy is “not just to ensure that he does not get the position but that it is crucial to make the point that there will always be a price for the self-serving actions that public officials take, that there will always be a day of reckoning, and that as citizens, we will never forget – that power ultimately belongs to the people”.

In the letter, the group detailed that Mr. Tangara is unqualified, adding that “including but not limited to his role in misleading the International Community on human rights abuses that took place in The Gambia under former President Jammeh’s dictatorial regime in which he dutifully served as Foreign Minister and as Permanent Representative of the Gambia to the United Nations.”

Dr Tangara is one of three prominent African candidates vying to replace the outgoing Secretary General Baroness Scotland of the U.K. 

Reporting by Adama Makasuba