We pray that Almighty Allah will continue to bless this great country of ours and continue to forgive all those departed souls who have contributed immensely towards the country gaining its Independence from the British. We pray that we continue to maintain peace and unity in our beloved country.
Mr President, your government has recently set up a commission with the objectives of investigating the activities of Area Councils across the country. However, the question many Gambians are asking is why setting up the commission now when in two months’ time we will have the much anticipated local government election?
The timing of the commission is indeed questionable. Such a commission should have been established earlier on so that the appointed commissioners could do their job accordingly without fear or favour. In fact, such a commission at this crucial time will most likely affect the chairmen and mayors of the area councils who are all possibly seeking re-election and also affect their campaigns.
Mr President, obviously voters want to know how mayors and chairmen spend their council's monies.
We therefore advise that this commission be put on hold till after the elections. We expect that the appointed commissioners will do their work according to their terms of reference. The Commission should independently its job to establish whether taxpayer’s money was misused or used otherwise.
Mr President, recently armed robbers struck the community of Fass Njaga Choi looting a lot of money and shooting personnel of the Police Intervention Unit (PIU) with two other civilians injured. The issue of security should be at the center stage of your government’s developmental priorities. Fass Njaga Choi and other villages along the borders in that part of the country have been prone to armed robbery attacks in recent years. It is therefore important that enough personnel are deployed to the area. You can’t just deploy two or three PIU personnel in that area and expect them to confront a large number of armed robbers. It’s practically impossible.
In fact, it’s even high time that the Gambia Armed Forces (GAF) takes control of the border areas while the PIU personnel concentrate on internal security. Most of these robbers are believed to be from Senegal, because when they strike, they always run into areas within that country.
The PIU officers can be within major towns across the country so that in an event of riot, among others, they can be easily deployed.
Mr President, it’s high time that the Ministry of Interior and the government in general consider the issue of CCTV cameras. As a nation, we should now be having CCTV cameras at strategic locations across the country. This will not only go a long way in fighting crimes and other clandestine activities across the country, but it will also help to control traffic and minimise accidents.
We believe Westfield, traffic-light, the roundabout (Turntable), Brikama, Soma, Basse, Farafenni among other strategic locations should all now have CCTV cameras.
There should also be certain units within the police that control these CCTV cameras. If they suspect any illegal activities, they can just signal a standby PIU or police who will reach the scene of the incident immediately. This is what is happening in other countries; thus we can also do it. Why even have a battalion of soldiers in Basse, when such a camp could have been in Fatoto?! The country’s security system should be critically looked into. The two governments - Gambia and Senegal - should engage their security forces to always patrol their borders. Our security personnel should also be equipped and motivated.
Mr President, in conclusion, we wish to commend the management of the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) under the leadership of Yankuba Darboe for collecting 1.2 billion dalasis in the month of January this year. This is a clear indication that the management and staff of the country’s revenue authority are up to their task. And the payment of rates and taxes should be the responsibility of all of us. Through the money that is collected as rates and taxes, the government realises its development plan. Hence the payment of taxes should even be done without further ado.
Good Day!