Gambian President Adama Barrow's administration faced a backlash after admitting its new vice-president may be constitutionally barred from serving and confirming ex-leader Yahya Jammeh will be permitted to keep a fleet of luxury cars.
One day after naming Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang as deputy leader, an outcry broke out after local media alleged she was 67 years old, two years over the legal maximum to serve in the post.
Barrow spokesman Halifa Sallah told journalists he was aware of the reports and advisors were recommending a parliamentary vetting process be put in place to avoid a similar situation, without confirming Jallow-Tambajang's true age.
Several phone calls to Jallow-Tambajang by AFP went unanswered yesterday.
"I have spoken to President Barrow that many concerns are being raised," Sallah said.
"The president has been carefully advised that he constitute a vetting committee," Sallah added, while asserting that "the appointment was done in good faith based on the facts that were available".
Barrow was in "final discussions with west African leaders "in order to announce the hour of coming," Sallah said, adding that he would arrive "very soon".
Barrow is currently living in Senegal until his safety can be guaranteed by thousands of soldiers from five African nations currently deployed in The Gambia, but unease is growing over his prolonged absence.
Equatorial Guinea yesterday for the first time confirmed the presence of Jammeh in the small west African country, where he had been offered refuge as "a political exile".
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, another long-serving African leader, had convinced Jammeh "to avoid any situation of armed confrontation", government spokesman Eugenio Nze Obiang said.
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