The Victims Centre of Human Rights Violations has condemned the nomination of Fabakary Tombong Jatta and Seedy S.K Njie as speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly of The Gambia.

The centre said in an open letter to President Adama Barrow: “it is with deep shock and a painful feeling of betrayal that the Gambia Centre for Victims of Human Rights Violations (Victim Centre) came to learn of your nomination of Fabakary Tombong Jatta and Seedy S.K Njie as Members of the National Assembly. 

“Even worse is to realise that you have identified them to be the Speaker and Deputy Speaker which came to pass on the first day of sitting of the sixth legislature on 14th April 2022.

“We are hugely concerned with your nomination of these two individuals as they do not only represent the brutal dictatorship the country endured for 22 years, but they were also key pillars of the power behind the tyranny of former president Yaya Jammeh. 

“Since 1997, Fabakary was a Member of the National Assembly until 2017, half of which period he served as the majority leader.

“Together with Seedy and the rest of the APRC NAMs, these two individuals played a leading role in strengthening dictatorship as lawmakers who failed to provide constitutional oversight as well as legal reforms necessary to prevent and and hold accountable perpetrators of human rights violations under the APRC Regime. 

“Rather, they deliberately and actively reneged on their constitutional duties of holding the Executive accountable, but instead decided to aid and abet tyranny which had consumed the lives of scores of Gambians including your own colleagues while you were part of the opposition.

“In essence, Fabakary and Seedy Njie provided to Jammeh in the Legislature what the Junglers did for him in the security sector.

“Mr. President, the day Fabakary and Seedy were installed as the National Assembly leaders, it coincided with the sixth anniversary of the murder of your former political ally Solo Sandeng. 

“Your election on 1st December 2016 was a direct offshoot of the protest that Solo and your compatriots led at Westfield for which they were brutally crushed so much so that Solo and several others never lived to enjoy the freedom you and the rest of fellow Gambians celebrate today.

“Hence the nomination and election of Fabakary and Seedy as Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively is a moral indictment of your leadership and a manifestation of gross betrayal of the Gambian nation, and in particular your very allies: Solo Sandeng, Solo Kuruma, Ebrima Ceesay, Lang Marong, Lamin Ndambu Dibba who died, and many others who continue to live in terrible pain and misery today due to torture. In this April, we recall in 2000 when Jammeh ordered the massacre of Gambian children. 

“These crimes among many all constitute the uncountable instances in which Fabakary and Seedy should have stood up as lawmakers to check the Executive at the time but failed to do so.”

Reporting by Adama Makasuba