Embattled President Yahya Jammeh of The
Gambia has warned the high Level ECOWAS
mediation mission led by Nigeria’s President
Muhammadu Buhari against coming to Banjul,
the Gambian capital on Wednesday for peace
talks.
He asked them to instead come on Friday.

President Buhari, who is leading the mediating
team alongside Mr. John Mahama, the
immediate past President of Ghana said the
delay notwithstanding, the mandate of the
ECOWAS would be accomplished.
Jammeh who had hoped to use the country’s
Supreme Court to upturn opponent Adama
Barrow’s election found the road closed today
after the court postponed the hearing of the
case for months.
Gambia’s Supreme Court said today that it
cannot rule on Jammeh’s challenge against his
electoral defeat on 1 December due to lack of
judges.

“We can only hear this matter when we have a
full bench of the Supreme Court,” Emmanuel
Fagbenle, the court’s chief justice said Tuesday.
The Nigerian judge said the extra judges needed
to hear the case were not available.
The Gambia relies on foreign judges, notably
from Nigeria, to staff its courts due to a lack of
trained professionals in the tiny west African
state.
Jammeh’s political party lodged a legal case on
his behalf last month aimed at annulling the
December 1 election result and triggering new
elections.

“This is why alternative dispute resolution is
important,” he said.
“We are now only left with the ECOWAS
mediation initiative and the inter-party
committee set up by government to resolve the
dispute,” he said.