Sheriff Mustapha Dibba
Sheriff Mustapha Dibba (10 January 1937 – 2 June 2008) was a veteran
| Sheriff Mustapha | |
|---|---|
| 1st Vice President of the Gambia | |
| Tenure | 24 April 1970 – 15 September 1972 |
| President | Sir Dawda Jawara |
| Predecessor | Position established |
| Successor | Assan Musa Camara |
Biography
Dibba was the son of Mustapha Dibba, a
When Gambia became a republic after the 1970 referendum, Dibba was appointed as vice president and continuing to serve as Finance Minister.[1]
Dibba was the Gambia's first vice-president in 1970. He resigned from that position on 15 September 1972, as a result from the butut scandal, which his younger brother Kutubo was arrested for smuggling Gambian currency and contraband goods to neighbouring Senegal in August 1972 and found to have working out of Sheriff Dibba's official residence, No. 1 Marina. In October 1972, he was appointed as Gambia's first ambassador to the European Economic Community and in July 1974, he was recalled by President Jawara from Brussels and appointed as Minister of Economic Planning and Industrial Development. In late July 1975, Jawara accused Dibba of trying to unseat him through a cabinet revolt and Dibba was dismissed immediately. Dibba was later sacked from the PPP in August 1975.[1] He later formed the National Convention Party (NCP) in 1975. Following elections in 1977, the NCP became the main opposition party in the Gambia.
He was arrested in August 1981, along with others NCP members and activists,
Following the overthrow of the Jawara government in 1994, the NCP and other political parties were banned. The ban on the NCP was lifted in mid-2001 and Dibba contested the election held on 18 October of that year. He was defeated by incumbent President Yahya Jammeh and placed fourth out of five candidates, winning 3.8% of the vote.[3]
Dibba then gave his support to Jammeh and his party, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction, and after the legislative elections of January 2002, he was elected Speaker of the National Assembly at the first meeting of the new legislature on 3 February.[citation needed]
In April 2006, Dibba was arrested for nine days and dismissed as speaker; he was allegedly linked to the coup attempt against Jammeh in the previous month.[1][4] Dibba himself was over 65 years old by this time and was therefore not eligible to run.[5] Nevertheless, after his release, he reaffirmed his loyalty to President Jammeh. He later retired from politics prior to his death.[1]
He died from a heart attack at the
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-442-26526-4.
- ^ Hughes, Arnold; Perfect, David, eds. (2008). "Dibba, Sheriff Mustapha (1937-2008)". Historical Dictionary of The Gambia. African Historical Dictionaries. Vol. 109. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. pp. 52–54.
- ^ a b Elections in The Gambia, African Elections Database.
- ^ "Gambian parliament gets new speaker" Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine, AngolaPress, 20 April 2006.
- ^ "Former speaker joins the Jammeh camp"[permanent dead link], African Press Agency, 6 September 2006.
- ^ "Gambia: Sheriff Dibba Passes Away". allAfrica. 2 June 2008.
- ^ "NCP Leader, Former Vice-President and Speaker, Sheriff Mustapha Dibba Dies". Senegambia News. 2 June 2008. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012.
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