By Landing Colley
Gambian lawmakers have blamed Barrow administration for the rise in coronavirus case in the country as they said government failed to enforce the State of Public Emergency strictly.
The house blame comes two days after members rejected the request made by the government to further extend the State of Public Emergency in the country with another 45 days.
However, the house’s special committee on coronavirus at the weekend tabled a 21 days report to extend the State of Public Emergency.
Honorable Saikouba Jarju expressed his disappointment concerning the meeting Select Committee had with the Minister of Justice noting that “in this time of pandemic there should be a strong collaboration between all sectors of the government.”
“I believe that there should be proper coordination between Minister of Justice and all other stakeholders that have the responsibility to implement,” he reiterated.
“We expect the Minister of Justice to get this regulation and serve it to all relevant organization and agency that are responsible to regulate this implementation,” he added.
The Ministry of Health, he said, should provide materials for the security to help them do their job, “if the interior is not provided with material, they cannot disperse their men in to the street like that, if not they can be infected with the virus.”
“This are the issue that we should be serious with especially in this time, there should be no blame game. The problem is there was none enforcement of the regulation as Minister of Justice manifested and agreed, there was no collaboration and we should blame them for that, he said.
According to him, he said the Ministry of Interior said it is not properly involved in terms of enforcing the regulation during the State of Public Emergency.