By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Unimpeachable and highly placed sources within the corridors of state power say, President Yahya Jammeh has appointed his arch-political rival and vociferous critic, Lamin Waa Juwara as Governor of Lower River Region. He replaces Momodou Soma Jobe who was sacked a month ago. Juwara who is also leader of the opposition National Democratic Action Movement (NDAM) Party is probably the most tortured politician since the July 22, 1994 coup that toppled the PPP government of his uncle, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara where, Mbarodi (Fula for lion) as he is affectionately called, served as an Independent MP. He had also served as District Commissioner (the prequel to the current Governor normenclature) to all of The Gambia's five Divisions now also, called regions. A former shoolteacher, Juwara holds a Master degree in Political Science from Sofia State University in Bulgaria.

Juwara’s appointment as Governor under a regime he has called the worst names and one that has on numerous times attempted his life, charged him with sedition and treasonous offenses and sent him to Mile II Prisons as a felon, punctuates a sad chapter in Gambian politics. We will leave it at that and allow other commentators to pick it up from there. 

In another development, our State House correspondent Kissy Kissy Mansa reports that a high-powered ECOWAS delegation met a visibly nervous Jammeh early this morning and it is highly suspect that the message is not pleasant. Says Kissy, there is growing uneasiness here over the President’s last minute cancellation of his planned trip to Abuja, Nigeria. “The presidential motorcade and government officials were told that the trip had been cancelled in the last hour of the trip,” reveals Kissy. This development further fuels speculations that something ominous is in the air.