Adhurey to Jameel: I will not forget the attempt to overthrow Yameen

Abdul Raheem Abdulla (Adhurey), the chairperson of PNC, said on Friday that he will never forget the attempt made by former Maldivian vice president Dr. Mohamed Jameel Ahmed to overthrow former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s administration.

Adhurey’s remarks hit back at Jameel – who is now Yameen’s top lawyer – for recent comments he made during a gathering at the headquarters of PPM – PNC’s coalition partner.

Addressing Monday’s gathering, Jameel said that the PPM-PNC must not forget how it won the September presidential elections and came back to power.

This was after the top PPM-PNC leadership was visibly absent from gatherings at the PPM headquarters last week, which was attended by PPM’s leader Yameen.

Adhurey, along with other members of the PPM-PNC leadership, are currently on a visit to Addu City.

In a rally at Addu’s Hulhudhoo district on Friday night, Adhurey said they will not forget how they came back to power.

“We will not forget how we returned to power. What we did to come back to power. Who provided their cooperation. And who rose against it,” he said.

Adhurey said he also remembers who it was that installed the MDP in power and “destroyed” the country.

He said that MDP got elected in 2018 after spreading false rumors to end Yameen’s administration.

“Completely baseless lies. There wasn’t a single thing President Yameen wasn’t accused of,” he said.

Adhurey said he will also not forget how certain individuals, having spread the rumors, switched sides again to the PPM-PNC.

Jameel had been Yameen’s first vice president after he was elected to office in 2013. However, Jameel was ousted in a no-confidence vote submitted to the Parliament by the PPM in 2015, and was replaced by then-tourism minister Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Gafoor.

Following his ouster, Jameel led the ‘United Opposition’ movement against Yameen’s administration.

He became one of the fiercest critics of Yameen’s administration, accusing the PPM leader of major acts of corruption.

Jameel went into self-imposed exile in the UK after he was implicated in a court warrant for Yameen’s arrest.

He had remained in UK until the end of Yameen’s administration.

After Yameen’s election defeat in 2018, Jameel joined Jumhoory Party (JP) - part of the coalition government.

In 2019, he contested unusually in the parliamentary elections for the Vilimale’ seat, as an independent candidate.

He later left JP to rejoin PPM, and was appointed Yameen’s lead attorney in the corruption cases against him.

He was also Yameen’s choice for a running mate in the recent presidential election, before the Elections Commission rejected his candidacy due to the former president’s conviction for money laundering and bribery.