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Member of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is unhappy with the way the atrocities inflicted on Ghanaians in The Gambia 16 years ago have been handled.
According to him, the Gambian authorities have not shown sufficient commitment to bring the perpetrators of the 2005 incident to justice.
This precedes a virtual meeting between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Wednesday on the military takeover in Guinea.
Gambian security forces arrested migrants on their way to Europe in July 2005 after their boat landed in the country on suspicion of being involved in an attempted coup.
Almost all of the migrants, including around 44 Ghanaians, were subsequently killed.
Amid mounting evidence that the killings were ordered by then President Yahya Jammeh, calls have been made for an international investigation into the massacre.
In his statement, Ablakwa called on President Akufo-Addo, who is also the President of ECOWAS, to use Wednesday’s forum to challenge Gambian President Adama Barrow on the steps taken so far to deliver justice. to Ghanaian families affected by the incident.
“ECOWAS led by our president, Nana Akufo-Addo, who has direct responsibility for reporting to the people of Ghana on the steps they are taking to bring Jammeh to justice, should clarify to Gambian President Adama Barrow during today’s meeting. “So that Ghana and the international community do not accept the opportunistic stabbing maneuvers in the back at Banjul aimed ultimately at protecting Yahya Jammeh,” he said.
Meanwhile, the final report of The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) is expected to be ready this month.
Regarding the unrest in Guinea, Samuel Okudzto Ablakwa believes that energies must be channeled to adopt a resolution “demanding an overthrow of the many selfish mutilations of constitutions which have led to a wave of third-termism and the removal of constitutional term limits. “
Below is his statement:
As ECOWAS leaders hold a virtual meeting today on the political situation in Guinea, it is essential that West African presidents do not lose sight of the fact that another coup took place that same year. Sunday (September 5, 2021) – this time in The Gambia. It was a coup against the countless victims of Yahya Jammeh’s atrocities and serious human rights violations. Ghana was the hardest hit by this coup.
The coup took place with the announcement on Sunday by the secretary general of the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) party of Yahya Jammeh, Fabakary Tombong Jatta, at a press conference in Banjul that his party had reached an agreement with the National People’s Party under current President Adama Barrow. (NPP) to support him in the presidential election on December 4.
This marriage with the devil constitutes such a cruel betrayal of all human rights activists to whom President Barrow has given the highest assurances that Jammeh will be brought to justice.
Foremost in Jammeh’s long list of victims are the 56 West African migrants, including 44 Ghanaians brutally murdered in July 2005 by Yahya Jammeh’s firing squad who only recently openly admitted their crimes to the Commission. Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations (TRRC). The TRRC’s final report was eagerly awaited this month.
Yahya Jammeh, the bloodied dictator who ruled with an iron fist for 22 years, seeks immunity and a safe smuggling to Gambia from Equatorial Guinea, where he has fled since his ouster by ECOWAS troops in 2017 after refusing to give in. electoral defeat.
It is important to point out that the transcripts I have reviewed reveal that Lt. Malick Jatta and Corporal Omar A. Jallow confessed to The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) that the migrants were executed by the “Junglers” squad, a paramilitary force which took control of Jammeh, on the other side of the Gambian border in Senegalese territory. “We were told they were mercenaries,” Jatta said, adding that he shot and killed one of the migrants.
“I heard people screaming in the forest saying ‘save us, Jesus’. be executed. “
The current President of ECOWAS, President Nana Akufo-Addo, was Ghana’s Foreign Minister when our compatriots were horribly murdered, so he must be well aware of this matter.
It should be remembered that Ghana and The Gambia signed a memorandum of understanding on July 2, 2009 in Sirte, Libya, under the auspices of ECOWAS and the UN. The two countries have pledged, among other things, to bring to justice the actual perpetrators of the massacre if new evidence comes to prove a prima facie case against the alleged perpetrators.
Thanks to the work of the Gambia TRRC, new evidence is now available to bring the rogue president who has given himself questionable credentials ranging from professor, sheikh, Alhaji, doctor, AIDS healer and Babili Mansa to bring justice.
ECOWAS led by our President, Nana Akufo-Addo, who has direct responsibility for reporting to the people of Ghana on the steps they are taking to bring Jammeh to justice, is expected to clarify Gambian President Adama Barrow during today’s meeting. hui that Ghana and the international community would not accept the opportunistic stabbing maneuvers in the back at Banjul aimed ultimately at protecting Yahya Jammeh.
Although, many Africans also expect that instead of focusing on sanctioning Guinea, a resolution will be passed demanding an overthrow of the many selfish mutilations of constitutions that have led to a wave of third parties. -termism and the removal of constitutional term limits.
Only frank and sincere deliberations will put West Africa and the entire African continent on a sustainable path to peace and prosperity.
#JammehToJustice
# 56West Africans44Ghanaians DeserveJustice
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
[MP, North Tongu
Ranking Member, Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs]
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