The leader of the now proscribed Three Years Jotna Movement and now supporter of the NPP, Musa Koteh, commonly called King Sport has advised President Adama Barrow to stop the prosecution of the new Brikama Area Council chairman, Yankuba Darboe.
Mr Darboe is currently facing sedition charges on matters arising from a protest staged by the movement in 2019 calling on Barrow to keep his promise to step down after three years.
In write-up shared with The Standard, Mr Koteh wrote: ”It is in the news that Chairman Yankuba Darboe has been summoned to court based on things that happened years ago in connection with the 3 Years Jotna case. Mr President, I find it very disturbing that your government is trying to drag us to things in the past and shifting our attention from nation building. You have to know that it is time for work and that politics is over. We should all be united and build our country but not bring petty issues for distractions.”
Mr Koteh further reminded Barrow that there are still videos where he Barrow publicly said that security were ordered to fire tear gas at the 3 Years Jotna protesters who were granted permit for a peaceful protest.
“You knew that was wrong, and then again you detained our leadership unnecessarily and dragged them to court for over one year before declaring that you have pardoned them and that they were free, even though we all know that it is because you have no case against them,” Koteh told the president.
After all these, Mr Koteh went on, ”I must tell you that it is important that you now focus on developing our country and let the past be in the past. Yankuba Darboe has been elected by Gambians, and he is doing his job, so please let him be, because issues like these can lead to serious repercussions. In fact why now? Where were you and your government when Yankuba contested for the post of chairman and was accepted by IEC to contest? So, we can all agree that Yankuba was clean. So why now?” Mr Koteh said.
He claimed the matter is politically motivated because Yankuba is trusted by the people who voted him to be BAC chairman.
“The people surrounding you made you to believe that Yankuba will lose but now that that didn’t happen, they now want to influence you to drag Yankuba into petty issues that we all know hold no grounds. Mr President, you have to be very careful of the people you surround yourself with. These were the very people with Jammeh. Take note.
“I want you to know that we will support you in nation building, but we will not support you to violate human rights and bring back dictatorship in this country,” Mr Koteh concluded.