However, Mr Taal, who was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Legal Year 2023, said: “We cannot speak of the rule of law if we continue to rely on a body of laws that are designed for dictatorship.
“Today in 2023, we still have the same 1997 constitution, the same criminal code, the public order act, the elections decree, and draconian practice directions from the Jammeh era.”
According to lawyer Taal, the legal order of the previous dictatorial regime is still intact and yet to be supplanted after six years of The Gambia’s transition from a dictatorship in 2017.
“The Gambia we decided is yet to be realized and it is disheartening to maintain the arsenal of draconian laws from the Jammeh era in our books under our current dispensation,” he said.
Moreover, he noted, it is also important for the government to ensure the TRRC implementation transcends partisan politics and the quest for justice after the truth-seeking process is recognised as an integral part of coming to terms with the Gambia’s brutal past and saying no to impunity.
“In this regard,” he said, “I will call on the H.E. President Adama Barrow to personally champion the implementation of the TRRC recommendation to ensure accountability and reconciliation.”
Concluding, Lawyer Taal said: “Your Excellency, in December 2016 we turned to a new chapter when we decided to boot out dictatorship and tyranny under your leadership. The last leg of the journey is to ensure that Gambians will never again be subjected to such brutality and abuse by anyone or system. This we owe to generations of Gambians to come.”
