By Adama Makasuba
Momodou Sabaly, Former head of Civil Service and Minister for Presidential Affairs under former President Yahya AJJ Jammeh has encouraged lawmakers to question the Defence Minister, Honourable Serign Modou Njie, over the prolonged presence of the Senegalese troops in the country.
According to Momodou Sabally, the Senegalese troops keep mounting checkpoints in the country to maltreat Gambians, asking if their presence will lead to the violation of Gambians’ rights and that they should leave the country for good.
“Our MPs should do something. They should question the Defence Minister about the state of agreement between The Gambia and Senegal for Gambians to know how many Senegalese soldiers are in The Gambia, and their mission in the country. The parliament has the right to question the government to explain,” he said.
‘Their fighting with the Cassamance rebels recently, what soldiers call artillery shells which were fired and landed in The Gambia, the intelligence I gathered there are more than 30 shells. So, God forbid if those shells exploded in the country, what would have happened? So, let us not sit and wait until things go in the wrong way and we want to be linked to God. God has given us brains and eyes, and in this age of technology, we can access many things,” he added.
“We are an independent state, we are not under any country’s rule both on paper theory. The Gambia is an independent sovereign. So, what should be done in The Gambia should be determined by Gambians,” while emphasised that the Senegalese soldiers should leave the country.
“Senegal sees the Gambia as a region. It looks like Adama Barrow is a serving governor for Macky Saal in The Gambia, because there are lots of issues like our economy being controlled by Senegalese businessmen. But the Senegalese soldiers should leave.
“We have other Ecomig soldiers here. The way the Senegalese soldiers are behaving is not right, there are no other foreign soldiers who are behaving the same way the Senegalese soldiers are, they are the only people mounting checkpoints and maltreating Gambians and this must stop,” he echoed.