By: Sandally Sawo
The National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) and its executive director are relying on Section 35 of the 1997 Constitution to counter the resolution that the Finance and Public Accounts Committee(FPAC) of the National Assembly recently passed against them, sources in the legislature hinted The Voice.
It would be recalled that FPAC a fortnight ago compelled the NDMA executive director SannaDahaba to, within two weeks, render an account of alleged missing COVID-19 food relief items and fuel amounting to over D30m, failure of which he will be forced to go on administrative leave.
However, reports reaching this medium intimated that the NDMA has now fallen over backward to the 1997 Constitution to challenge FPAC’s resolution.
According to our sources in the Parliament, the NDMA is relying on Section 35 of the Constitution to extricate itself from any blame as regards the food aid distribution.
Sub-section one of this particular Section reads: “An Act of the National Assembly may authorize the taking, during any period of emergency, of measures that are reasonably justifiable for dealing with the situation that exists in The Gambia.”
And subsection two reads: “Nothing contained in or done under the authority of such an Act shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of section 19,23,24(other than subsections(5) to (8)thereof) or 25 of this Constitution to the extent that it is reasonably justifiable in the circumstances arising or existing during a period of public emergency for the purpose of dealing with the situation.”
Informed sources told this medium that NDMA has insisted that everything done during the food distribution was conducted in a public emergency and was, therefore, trying to bank on Section 35, which talks about derogations from fundamental rights under emergency powers.
The Voice will be following the developments as, according to other sources, the NDMA is also relying on the National Disaster Management Act of 2008 to argue its case.
