Gambia’s Vice President, Isatou Njie Saidy, has resigned.
Saidy abandoned President Yahya Jammeh, 24 hours to the deadline issued to him by African leaders to hand over to opposition leader, Adama Barrow.
She announced her resignation hours before official end of the tenure of Mr. Jammeh’s administration as the country’s political impasse gets worse over the refusal of Mr Jammeh to relinquish power to the President-elect Adama Barrow who was scheduled to be sworn in on Thursday.
The country’s minister of higher education, Aboubacar Senghore, who was appointed to the position last July, also resigned on Wednesday saying he cannot serve in the post beyond the tenure of the outgoing president.
“Given my strong religious and legal background, I feel it is now ethically and legally speaking time to step down as minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology and Religious Affairs as the constitutional mandate of the current government expires today, Wednesday 18th January 2017,” he wrote in his resignation letter to Mr Jammeh.
The resignation of Mr. Senghore, who was the country’s former foreign affairs minister, brings the number of minister that have resigned from Mr Jammeh’s cabinet since the political logjam to eight.
A source who asked not to be named for fear of being arrested, told PREMIUM TIMES that the increasing resignation of ministers may have forced Mr. Jammeh to dissolve his cabinet.
Having lost all legal avenue to stop the inauguration of Mr. Barrow, the Gambia president, relying on a motion by the parliament, controlled by his party, declared a 90-day state of emergency, which effectively extended his hold on power.
The situation in the tiny West African country has become dire after the failure of a team of leaders from the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, failed to convince Mr. Jammeh to allow for peaceful transition.
ECOWAS has since prepared troops drawn from countries in the region including Nigeria to forcibly remove Mr. Jammeh from office.
Reports indicated that a Nigerian warship was already sailing towards the country on Monday.
On Wednesday, thousands of Western tourists trying to leave the country before the expected deployment of the regional force, gathered at Gambia’s international airport.
Earlier, Nigerian soldiers and a Nigerian warship were sent to the Gambia to terminate the 22-year old leadership of President Jammeh who lost the December 1 election but has vowed not to hand over power today when his term runs out.
Jammeh, who was defeated by Adama Barrow, first conceded defeat but later changed his mind citing irregularities. He has since challenged the results in court but has suffered several setbacks.
Nigerian leader, Muhammadu Buhari was appointed chief mediator in the Gambia by ECOWAS but all attempts to convince Jammeh to leave power peacefully after 22 long years failed.