Government Spokesman
By Buba Gagigo
Government Spokesperson Ebrima G. Sankareh Denies claims that Government has requested 625 soldiers from Senegal to beef up security ahead of the December 4 election.
He described the claims as the “biggest lie ever”.
“At first place it is a lie. The Gambia Government never requested 625 soldiers for elections. That is a lie. It is the biggest lie ever. These 625 soldiers are the fifth batch of the troops constituted by Senegal since the coming into force of the ECOMIG. They have batch one, they went, and [batch one] was replaced by batch number two; batch number two was replaced by batch number three. Three was replaced by four; and four is now about to leave, and when they leave, they will be replaced by batch number five,” Sankareh told Kerr Fatou in a phone interview.
However, he could not confirm if the said Senegalese soldiers have arrived in the country.
On Thursday morning images of soldiers on social media claimed that the Government of the Gambia has requested 625 soldiers from the Senegalese to beef up the country’s security in the build up to the 4th December presidential election; and the said soldiers have arrived in the country.
The Senegalese army is part of the ECOWAS mission in the country set up in January 2017 by the conference of Heads of State and Government of the West African organisation, in the aftermath of the the 1st December 2016 presidential election; following former president Yahya Jammeh’s refusal to hand over power to then president elect, Adama Barrow.
The forces are responsible for providing security for the President, members of the government and institutions, in order to create a secured environment for peace and development in The Gambia, post Jammeh era.