NEWS MAYOR JENG'S REMOVAL WAS AS A RESULT OF APRC'S COUNCILLORS PETITION -THE ALLGAMBIAN GATHERED BY STAFF WRITER -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 17, 2005 Highly placed sources close to the Department of State for Local Government and lands in Banjul have confirmed receiving a petition signed by Ruling APRC councilors who accused the suspended Banjul Mayor Pa Sallah Jeng of "abuse of office". Classified information reaching The ALLGAMBIAN online Newspaper says that the suspended Banjul Mayor was a "victim" of a state sponsored ploy calculated to smear the image of the politician who defeated the Ruling Party in the last Mayoral elections. According to our sources, the reasons advanced for Jeng's removal were flimsy and misplaced for any right thinking Gambian to buy. "The government had long been thinking about how to get rid of this man. They were not happy with his election into office. We received a petition signed by some APRC councilors, who claimed that Jeng had abused his office. However, these councilors never presented a single document to prove their charges against Jeng." said an insider at the Local government and Lands ministry. Investigations conducted by the ALLGAMBIAN reveal that the state is on the verge of notifying the Independent Electoral Commission about its decision to fire Mayor Jeng, even though the President Yahya Jammeh according to sources lacked such constitutional powers to sack the Mayor. Sources say the President had directed the Secretary of State for Local government and Lands to name Mr. Jeng's Deputy to oversee his position pending his replacement through the process of by elections. It would be recalled that Pa Sallah Jeng, a former strong supporter of the main Opposition United Democratic Party UDP won the Banjul Mayoral post some years ago with his own sponsored independent ticket. Despite the heavy state machinery and vilification campaign, he defeated the government sponsored candidate Manukumba, whose nomination was greeted with strong opposition among the rank and file of the Ruling APRC top brass and supporters. Reasons for such an opposition to Manu's candidature was attributed to his lack of popularity and commitment to the advancement for the party. While Mayor Jeng is patiently awaiting his fate, sources say the National Intelligence Agency and the Police are jointly investigating what our sources described as the "bogus conspiracy charges" brought against him by some self centred APRC supporters. According to our sources, the APRC councilors had a history of long standing strain relationship. According to sources, the said councilors have long accused Jeng of being insensitive to their plight. Jeng, sources said refused to take part in APRC "reckless" spending spree. "He refused to issue loans to these councilors who have been demanding building and car loans. He always tell them that the Council don't have budget for that." said our sources. The Banjul City Council is said to be faced with serious financial crisis. The council is experiencing problems in settling its utility bills, for sometime now. Sources said prior to Mayor Jeng's removal, the country's President Yahya Jammeh had declared that he can remove such elected local government leaders not meeting his regime's expectations. It is not clear whether the state will press any criminal charges against the suspended Mayor. But sources say the allegations made against him by the APRC councilors is a subject of police and NIA probe. Mr. Jeng had since denied the charges describing them as unfounded and totally misplaced. Go To Top -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2004 AllGambian.Net. All Rights Reserved. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤