Gambia’s
information minister Sheriff Bojang has resigned to protest President Yahya
Jammeh’s refusal to accept defeat in last month’s presidential election,
reports say.
Efforts to
contest the results were “an attempt to subvert the express will” of the
Gambian people, he said in a statement, Reuters news agency reports.
State
television reported that Mr Bojang had been sacked.
The UN
Security Council has called on President Jammeh to step down.
He initially
accepted that opposition leader Adama Barrow won the election, but then
reversed his decision, citing electoral “abnormalities”.
“The Gambia
has decided and we must accept and respect this decision,” Mr Bojang said in
his statement. He also spoke to Reuters by phone from neighbouring Senegal.
In October
Sheriff Bojang made headlines when he announced The Gambia’s intention to pull
out of the International Criminal Court.
He described
it as “an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of
people of colour, especially Africans”.
Yahya Jammeh
has ruled The Gambia since taking power in a coup in 1994. He has acquired a
reputation as a ruthless leader.
A trio of West
African leaders, including Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari, will travel to
the country on Wednesday in a second bid to convince him to accept the results.
The Gambia has
not had a smooth transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1965 and
regional grouping Ecowas has placed forces on standby in case Mr Jammeh does
not step down.
Last week, the
head of The Gambia’s army gave his full backing to the president.
Source:
www.bbc
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