Gambiaj.com – (BANJUL, The Gambia) – The National Assembly’s extraordinary session on Wednesday, convened to debate a motion establishing a committee to probe the sale and disposal of former President Yahya Jammeh’s assets, took a dramatic turn as incendiary language and revisionist calls sparked outrage among youth observers and revealed deep ideological rifts in the legislature.

What was expected to be a procedural debate on a motion tabled by Majority Leader Hon. Billay G. Tunkara veered into controversy when several lawmakers made remarks either seeking to rehabilitate the exiled former president’s image or disparaging the youth-led protest movement calling for accountability.

In a striking intervention, Hon. Gibbi Mballow of Lower Fuladu West announced his intention to table a separate motion seeking a pardon for Jammeh, the former dictator whose 22-year rule was marred by widespread human rights abuses and looting of state resources.

“Jammeh did good things and also did bad things,” Hon. Mballow remarked, in an attempt to strike a balance that critics saw as historical revisionism.

But the most inflammatory moment came when Hon. Alhagie Babou Ceesay, MP for Sabach Sanjal, referred to protesting youths as “cockroaches and mice” — language with disturbing echoes of dehumanization from authoritarian regimes elsewhere.

The derogatory remarks triggered immediate outrage from the Gambians Against Looted Assets (GALA), a civic youth movement attending the session. Several members stood up, made noise to disrupt the session in protest, and briefly walked out, visibly shaken by the insult.

Alieu Bah, widely known as “Immortal” and a leader of the GALA team, condemned Ceesay’s comments in a public post shortly after the incident. “He just called the protesters cockroaches and monkeys. He insulted a generation that only wanted what is theirs back,” Bah wrote, branding the MP “a cheap sellout.”

Amid the fraying decorum, Hon. Touma Njie, MP for Banjul South and a vocal defender of youth rights, rose in support of the protesters. “The youths are more honorable than the members of this parliament,” she declared — a statement that drew an immediate rebuke from Speaker Fabakary Tombong Jatta.

“Speak for yourself, Honourable Member,” the Speaker retorted, defending the collective integrity of the Assembly and warning against blanket criticisms from within the chamber.

Despite the heated exchanges, the motion to form a Special Select Committee to investigate the handling of Jammeh’s assets was passed by the Assembly.

The committee is tasked with scrutinizing the disposal of properties and funds identified by the Janneh Commission as looted by the former president and his associates. The commission’s 2019 report found that Jammeh had illicitly acquired hundreds of millions of dalasis during his presidency.

The committee’s findings are expected to inform future state action regarding the recovery or redistribution of those assets — a demand that has become a rallying cry for youth activists like GALA, who say stolen wealth must be returned to the people.

For many, however, the bitter tone of Wednesday’s debate raised unsettling questions about whether the National Assembly is committed to justice or still divided by the legacy of a dictatorship that many Gambians hoped had ended in 2017.