Mr.
President, we join the rest of Gambians in mourning the death of over 60
Gambians youths who lost their lives whilst trying to reach Europe and offer
our condolences to their families.
It
is indeed a very sad moment in the history of the country and we pray that
their souls will rest in perfect peace.
Mr.
President, as you mentioned in your statement concerning this tragedy, more
efforts need to be done in the form of sensisation of youths about the risk of
this illegal journey and the need to always take the legal way.
It’s
time that your government looks into the affairs of the youths with keen
interest. More skills centres should be built and more jobs be created to
tackle the high rate of unemployment in the country. The Navy should always be
patrolling in the sea to intercept any boat wanting to go on such journey.
Mr.
President, last Tuesday, during your meeting in Sibanor, you said: “It is
possible that ex president Jammeh can return home as private citizen, but not
as president. We will give him all the respect that is accorded to former Head
of State.”
This
created a lot of sentiments amongst Gambians, taking into consideration the
gross human right violations and the shocking revelations that were revealed at
the ongoing TRRC.
Mr.
President it will be appropriate for you to declare three days of national
mourning in respect of this tragedy. You should have not even continued with
your tour in the midst of this tragedy.
Mr.
President, remember majority of Gambians voted Jammeh out of office because of
his abuse of human rights and misuse of government funds during his tenure as
president.
The
revelations at the TRRC so far are very damaging as many people have been
killed, tortured, incarcerated, detained without trial and civil servants
sacked without justification.
Going
by the Janneh Commission’s report which you received on March 29, 2019, there
were also gross misuse of finances in government, Parastatals and Central Bank
of The Gambia. It was also revealed that Jammeh was earning a monthly salary of
D170,000 and had four aircrafts, 86 bank accounts, 300 landed properties in the
country.
According
to the Janneh Commission, Jammeh has in his accounts 304 million US Dollars, 24
million Euros and over two million pounds. Also remember that Jammeh’s coming
is a big threat to our security as he may still have support of some of the
security personnel and MFDC rebels of Casamance whom he used to sponsor.
Mr.
President , with all these atrocities and looting of our coffers, one doesn’t
expect Jammeh to come back to the country to be given all respect that is accorded
to former heads of state; instead your government should work with the Ghanaian government, ECOWAS, AU and UN to
arrest him and prosecute him without delay.
Mr.
President, almost every Gambian and even non Gambians around the world are
eagerly waiting to see Jammeh face Justice of all the atrocities he’s alleged
to have committed whilst in power and not to see him walking freely in the
Gambian soils.
Finally
Mr. President, the recent fire outbreak at the Ministry of Fisheries and Water
Resources should serve as an eye opener to your government to work on
computerising all their documents or in other words e-governance.
Some
of these old buildings that were built since colonial times should also be
replaced to avoid such incident from happening again.
Good
day
