Counsel to outgoing president of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, Edu Gomez, has fled the country to neighbouring Senegal after asking the president to step down in order to avoid a gruesome end to his tenure.
Gomez, in a letter, he alleged that he was forced to represent the president and his party, Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction, APRC, under “tremendous pressure and coercion.”
The lawyer represented Jammeh and the APRC, in their failed attempt to have the country’s Supreme Court overturn Adama Barrow’s victory and inauguration as President.
Gomez said he and his family fled to Senegal having successfully eluded the 24 hour military surveillance he was placed on.
He wrote: “On Tuesday 17th January 2017, my son and I took a crucial decision to seek sanctuary in the sister Republic of Senegal. This was found necessary due to the mounting fear and rapidly increasing tension at every passing moment.
“The general perception is that after midnight on 18th January 2017, the mandate of President Yahya Jammeh would expire and President-elect Mr. Adama Barrow would be sworn-in as president, in line with the dictates of our constitution. Any attempt to interrupt this ceremony, it is clearly understood, opens the Gambia to attack from ECOWAS forces.
“As a legal practitioner representing President Jammeh and the APRC the party in the ongoing petition filed on his behalf at the Supreme Court of the Gambia, I have to admit that I was working under tremendous pressure and coercion. All the lawyers with established practices in the Gambia refused to be associated with the said petition. As a retainer for the ruling APRC party, I could not refuse the brief on professional grounds, despite my apprehension.”
“Having fortunately eluded the 24 hour military security around me and my family, I managed to arrive in Senegal where I now gained safety, respite and mental stability. In my present situation, I humbly and respectfully advise president Jammeh as the champion of peace he has been known to be to peacefully step aside in the interest of peace and safety of the Gambian people.
“Everything, except God’s Kingdom, comes to an end. I advocate for a peaceful end rather than a violent and gruesome end. Please in the name of Most Merciful God do not allow your legacy to be described as one where “pen of the sword dipped in innocent blood writes its history on the rough page of tyranny.”
Jammeh’s whose Presidency expired on Wednesday midnight, has insisted he won’t step down, despite losing the December 1 election to Adama Barrow.
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