Sri Lanka Speaker takes U-turn, says President Gotabaya Rajapaksa still in country

Mangalore Today News Network

Colombo, July 11, 2022: Sri Lanka Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Monday took a U-turn on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s whereabouts and said that the president is still in the country.

 

Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that he made a mistake in an interview with the BBC. Earlier, the speaker had told BBC that Gotabaya Rajapaksa left the island and he is in a nearby country. In an interview with BBC, he had said that the President would be back in Sri Lanka by Wednesday.

However, on Monday, the speaker issued a clarification and told news agency ANI that the President is still in the country.

"President of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa is still in the country, I made a mistake in the (BBC) interview," speaker of Sri Lanka’s Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena told ANI.

Thousands of protesters stormed into the official residence of Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in rage over the government’s mishandling of the country’s worst economic crisis.

Protesters swarmed into the residence of Gotabaya and visuals of them working out at the gym, swimming in the president’s pool, dining in the kitchen and relaxing in the bedrooms went viral. Protesters claimed that they had found millions of rupees in the president’s house, which they returned over to the security units.

The protesters had called for the president’s resignation over his handling of the country’s dire economic crisis. Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had informed Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena that he would be resigning from his post on July 13. On Monday, the embattled president officially conveyed to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that he would resign on July 13 as previously announced.

The island nation is witnessing its worst economic crisis in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicines, fuel and other essentials.

Courtesy: India Today