President Adama Barrow has been asked to apologise over his statement to curtail political activities after December election, which the government rebutted and insisted the president’s statement was being misinterpreted.
Activista The Gambia, in a statement said it demands the President to make an immediate public apology for his statement and reassure citizens that he will not tamper with their rights, hence.
“On the backdrop of this statement by the President, Activista The Gambia expresses concerns over the president’s unequivocal desire to stifle the country’s political and democratic landscape. It further shows an attempt to stifle political freedom and freedom to associate and assemble as enshrined in our Constitution. Activista would like to remind the President of the republic that this country has come from a difficult past. As such, we are reminding the president that Gambians had learned enough lessons of living under a dictatorship and will therefore fight tooth and nail to prevent ourselves from sleepwalking into the rebirth of another dictatorship in the Country. In 2016, we fought so hard as people to free ourselves from the shackles of a long-standing dictatorship. And therefore, we will never trade off this victory for anything whatsoever,” the group said.
“Activista The Gambia, is a fervent believer of democracy as guided by the fundamental principles of freedom of movement, association, and assembly, as enshrined in Section 25 of the 1997 Constitution of The Republic of The Gambia, and Articles 10, 11, and 12 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights,” it added.
It described any attempts by the President to give such instructions amounts to running a ‘fool’s errand’. “Furthermore, with reference to the President’s statement to instruct the IGP to deny issuance of permits to those who seek it after December 4, 2021, we are again reminding him that he, Mr. Barrow, does not have any legitimate powers whatsoever to give such instructions, and therefore he will be running a fool’s errand in trying to do so,” Activista said in the statement.
The organisation said the Public Order Act, which gives the Police [IGP], the power to grant or deny permit to public assembly is an archaic and draconian law, which is blatantly unfit for use in a democratic and progressive society. The Act, Activista added, was a tool designed to curtail peoples’ freedom as it leaves our rights and freedoms to assemble at the mercy of the state security apparatus.
It called for such “obnoxious” laws to be removed from The Gambia’s statues, to consolidate the country’s fledgling democracy.