By: Nicholas Bass
The Information Minister, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay Wednesday disclosed that the Barrow Government was not planning a counter protest against the petitions made by The Gambia Against Looted Asserts (GALA).
Speaking on West Coast Radio during Coffee Time with Peter, Dr. Ceesay said that every Gambian citizen has the constitutional rights to go out and ‘’protest’’ against corruption.
“I think there is a misconception, the government is not planning to organize a counter protest or a counter demonstration,’’ he said. However, he emphasized that Gambians live in a democratic society wherein citizens were empowered by the constitution to ‘’express’’ their grievances against corruption. He adds that such applies to those who want to go out and show ‘’confidence’’ in the government, that is democracy.
According to him, Ebrima Sillah can go out as a citizen to affirm his confidence in the NPP Government. He says that Sillah is a minister and politician but he is not doing any upcoming protest on behalf of the current government.
He went on to say that politicians came out to support GALA protest and Lawyer Essa Faal and Mayor Rohey Malick Lowe came out to support GALA at the time of the protest. He suggested that if politicians could come out to support GALA then there was nothing wrong for other politicians to support NPP militants’ protest.
Meanwhile, the information minister revealed that after the 2021 Presidential Election, Lawyer Faal sought an ‘”audience’’ with President Barrow, pleading for him to intervene so that he [Faal] could ‘’get’’ a particular plot of land wherein, the president declined to help Faal.
According to Dr. Ceesay the President at the time referred Mr. Faal to the relevant institution regarding the acquisition of the land in question.
Going further the information minister revealed that the Barrow administration was not issuing Gambian Identity Cards to Nigerians and Guineans nationals, adding that the said recent documents were non-Gambian Identity Cards.
Dr. Ceesay also revealed that on 24 July this year the African Development Bank approved 19.9million Dollars grants to boost up rural youths and women projects. The project, he says, is aimed at combating poverty and migration.
