By: Nyima Sillah
Seedy Cham, Chairman of the Coalition of Progressive Gambians has announced that his pressure will embark on a new protest slated for the 17th of June 2023.
The Progressive chairman disclosed that the group will embark on this new protest due to the failure of the government to address their demand.
In an exclusive interview with this medium, Mr. Cham said they planned to protest in November 2022 with 9 points of demand which were categorized as short-term, medium-term, and long-term demands, but noting that if the government is willing to address them they will postpone the protest and listen to the government.
“In between we had engagements with the office of the inter-poll under the leadership of Pa Alieu Jawara and later the Supreme Islamic Council who told us to wait for the Minister of Trade and Minister of Justice. The Minister of Trade said they will address our demands after writing our recommendation but we didn’t hear from the Minister of Justice.
“On the 10th of December 2022, we had the Minister of Justice he also told us to write our recommendations which we did but no response. From there, we realized that they just want us to postpone the protest but they don’t care about the issues of the people,” he explained.
Cham stressed that they gave respect to the government, by sending them a letter of protest knowing that they have the right as a citizen to protest, noting that this time they don’t want any engagement with anyone.
“We wrote to the office of the IGP on the 9th of May to seek a permit for the 17th of June protest. A lot is going on lately, the AKI issue, the price of basic commodities, increment of cash power, PURA pointing fingers at certain media houses without any genuine reason, and many more. The corruption in this country is too much, nepotism and injustice,” he outlined.
However, he added, that they are optimistic that the IGP will give them the permit taking into consideration the reason for the rejection of their previous permit is cause they wrote their demand but stated that if the government is ready to address their needs, they are ready to dialogue which was later resolved through dialogue.
“But this time around, we are not ready for dialogue because they failed us. Our demands are not addressed, they just needed the protest to be canceled which happened but they don’t care for the interest of the citizens. Instead, they care about their positions and the government so we believe this time he will give us a permit because this time we will stick to our demands on the permit,” he strongly emphasized.
