By: Kemo Kanyi
The leader of the APP-Sobeya alliance, Essa Mbaye Faal, has strongly condemned the treatment meted out to the citizens that came out on Thursday to protest for transparency and accountability in the sale of Jammeh’s assets.
Faal called on the government to adhere to the principles of freedom of assembly.
The Gambians Against Looted Assets (GALA), a pressure group formed in the wake of the publication of an investigative report about the sale of former dictator Yaya Jammeh’s assets, called on the government to release the entire list of buyers of the properties and the money involved.
The group members were arrested Thursday and charged with the alleged offence of unlawful assembly.
The APP-Sobeya leader cautioned authorities against violation of the rights of the arrested individuals.
“We vehemently caution the government against any attempt to suppress these peaceful demonstrations or violate the constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and assembly. A democracy thrives when citizens can demand answers without fear of reprisal, and any heavy-handed response will be met with resolute condemnation,” Faal stated in an interview with The Voice, adding that people have a right to know.
“Obfuscation is intolerable, and silence is complicity,” he asserted, maintaining that the government must immediately release the full details of the transactions around the sale of Jammeh’s property or face escalating public dissent.
“The youth are not merely protesters; they are the vanguard of accountability, and their voices shall not be silenced,” he pointed out.
The APP-Sobeya leader explained that he has consistently demanded the full publication of all pertinent information, regarding the accounting and disposal of Jammeh’s assets, as it is the public’s unequivocal right to know and the protesters’ legitimate right to demand.
He stressed that the continued secrecy, surrounding these transactions is unacceptable in a nation that claims to uphold democratic principles.
