Activista, a CSO has reminded President Adama Barrow and its government of the fundamental human rights and freedoms as guaranteed by the 1997 Constitution, while they condemned the President over the attack on civil society especially on activist Madi Jobarteh.
According Activista in a dispatched statement, it read, “We condemn in the strongest possible term the hallmark of a governance system that is relapsing into dictatorship.
This is manifested in the police brutal beating of Mr Kebba Chatty, perpetual denial of police permits for citizens to exercise their fundamental freedoms and verbal assault by President Adama Barrow directed to civil society in particular in the person of Mr Madi Jobarteh,” Omar Danso, Activista National Coordinator said in a statement.
“We demand that The President be measured in his statements whenever he speaks to the people he swore to protect as he is ‘the Servant-in Chief’ of the people.
Similarly, Activista the Gambia expresses its utter shock and dismay at the shameful and revealing mismanagement and plunder of public funds as manifested in the recent Auditor General’s report. We also demand that the state be held accountable for this nefarious economic looting of public resources,” he added.
“Furthermore, the lack of implementation of the recommendations of the Janneh Commission report, the slow pace of implementing TRRC recommendations, rising levels of corruption, skyrocketing prices of essential food commodities and fuel prices, increasing land-grabbing and dubious land allocations are critical national issues that negatively affect daily lives of ordinary poor and vulnerable citizens.
“These vital national issues are dear to average citizens and therefore require urgent action from the government as the primary duty-bearer to fix in the interest of accountability and transparency to the citizenry. We demand that the President and the Government of the Gambia take significant actions to address these grave issues eating up the very fabric of our fragile democracy and the society in general.
Activista would like to remind the President and the Government of the Gambia that fundamental human rights and freedoms are guaranteed by the 1997 Constitution (Section 17 – 35),” it concluded.
