The group said the protest was to demand the president and his government to immediately address the daily price hikes in fuel, food and other essential commodities in the country.
The group wants the president to set up a commission to thoroughly investigate the illegal opening of the special security account and the misuse of public funds amounting to D669 million without following procurement procedures.
Meanwhile, The GPF in a letter dated 25th of August 2022 and signed by Assistant Inspector General of Police (Administration) and addressed to Seedy Cham, the chairman of Coalition Progressive Gambians stated that the group request for permit to hold national demonstration can’t be granted at the moment due to security reasons.
“The group is also seeking for the president to hand over the National Audit Report to the IGP to investigate the Banjul rehabilitation project and prosecute the perpetrators involved. The Coalition of Progressive Gambians also called on government to publish the report of the joint committee that investigated the deliberate burning of the Fisheries Ministry in December 2019 where valuable equipment’s, assets, important files and even cash books were all burnt to ashes.”
“The group is also calling on the National Assembly to prioritize the Anti–Corruption Bill and pass it into a law. We later found out that the executive withdrawn the said bill at the committee level at the National Assembly which that means there is no Anti– Corruption Bill before the parliamentarians as we speak.”
“These above mentioned concerns motivated us as a group to apply for a police permit to embark on a nationwide peaceful protest to manifest our grievances against the government of Adama Barrow.”
“Unfortunately, we realised the old day’s dictatorship is still alive and kicking with the old style which is a huge setback on our democracy. The office of the Inspector General of Police’s decision to reject us a permit with flimsy excuses of so–called security reasons shows that our democracy is under attack from the Barrow led Government.”
“If you could recall back in 2021, Barrow made a statement about the issuance of police permits to groups who want to protest to manifest their grievances or what he called the daily politicking will stop if he is re–elected. We believe that the IGP is now executing Barrow’s promise to please his master. Therefore, if we condone this blatant abuse of power it means Gambians have again compromise their own freedom and rights which would lead the country to another terrifying and autocratic leadership. We believe the results of compromising our liberty and rights would be catastrophic for every Gambian.”
“We call for a massive peaceful protest scheduled on Friday 11th November 2022 to show our outrage against the daily hikes of fuel cost, basic food and other essential commodity prices. We believe that denying people to raise their concerns about corruptions democratically in the country will fuel more corruptions.”
“We cannot afford any mistake again that could lead us to another dictatorship the outcome of which will be a disaster for all of us.”
