Posted by By Bekai Njie
Party delegates at 6th Congress of the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), which was held at Bwiam have reelected Yahya Jammeh as the party leader and secretary general.
They equally therefore, called for his unconditional return and unfreezing of his assets.
According to Fabakary Tombong-Jatta, the interim leader of APRC, a joint declaration was negotiated with the government, ECOWAS, AU, UN and representatives of President Jammeh and agreed upon on substantial issues.
“Therefore, we call on all parties to honour and respect the MOU and we call on the government for the unconditional return of the former president and to unfreeze and return to him all his assets. We also call upon the coalition government for the return and unfreezing of APRC assets and bank account for the spirit of nation healing and reconciliation,” Mr. Jatta said at the congress.
The congress was graced by representatives of various political parties in the country including representatives from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and thousand of party delegates across the country.
It’s the first congress of the party since its founder, Yahya Jammeh, who is now in exile in Equatorial Guinea was defeated in the 2016 Presidential Election by coalition presidential candidate Adama Barrow.
“The involvement of national and international bodies made the peaceful departure of former president and the party leader through self exile to Equatorial Guinea possible,” Mr. Jatta said, adding that the transition period,however, proved to be a very difficult and trying moment for the APRC as our successors in government made every pernicious attempt to quash our great party.
“The closure of our political bureau, the freezing of the accounts and seizure of the APRC vehicles were done instantaneously. Rampant arrests and detentions of our members has become the norm, with continuous and calculated attempts to torment and humiliate our party members.”
Allegations, he stated, made against our government, party and supreme leader have all been made in order to erase our party from the political landscape but the party militants both at home and in the Diaspora stood shoulder-to-shoulder with each other in solidarity and unity to reaffirm the APRC’s might as a political force for good within The Gambia.
The 2016 Presidential Election, Mr. Jatta added, has brought about a dramatic change “not only in the political history of The Gambia but more so with our great party APRC.”