President Jammeh sacks high profile cabinet ministers

Hon Kolly

Hon Kah

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has fired two high profile cabinet members in the persons of Hon. Abdou Colley, Minister of Trade, Regional Integration and Employment and Hon. Yusupha Kah, Minister of Work, Construction and Infrastructure.

The sackings, according to a statement aired on State TV, GRTS, on March 19, 2011 said the two are sacked from their posts with immediate effect. The statement said the ministers were dismissed in accordance with the powers vested upon the President by the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia.

As usual, no reasons were advance by the office of the President on the sacking of the two cabinet ministers and no replacements were named at the time of the release. Abdou Colley was appointed by President Jammeh in 2007 as Minister of Trade, Industry and Employment and has worked for the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) as an economist earlier. He was sacked in 2009 and reappointed in 2010 as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs.

Yusupha Kah, the long-serving Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Employment, was appointed as Minister in 2009, following the change of name to the “Ministry of Trade, Regional Integration and Employment”. Kah has also served as Minister of Economic Planning and Industrial Development.