By: Nyima Sillah
Following the recently called off protests by disgruntled commuters and passengers using the ferry services from Banjul to Barra, the Coalition of Progressive Gambians (CoPG) urged the government particularly the Ministry of Interior and the IGP to desist from intimidating and arresting Gambians over theirright to peaceful protests.
“If government is on track, why the fear of people to go out to express their civic rights, if accountability and transparency are the order of the day, there would have been no need to fear for a peaceful protest,” CoPG asserted in a statement shared with this medium.
The statement pointed out that Gambians are no more ignorant of the current issues that affect and shape their future as the current global situations have rejuvenated consciousness in the minds of a good number of Gambians and no longer will they be fiddled with intimidations and petty inducements.
“The National Assembly and Local Government Elections have attested to this. A lot of Gambians have been traumatized by the provisions of the Public Order Act and must be immediately repealed as President AdamaBarrow himself has experienced the intimidations of this Act,” the group declared.
“The Coalition of Progressive Gambians continues to condemn all sorts of intimidations and violation of the rights of Gambians and will continue to protest and condemn any act by government or institutions to intimidate, suppress and violate the rights of Gambians.”
The pressure group conveyed their solidarity with the people affected and those who wanted to express their civic rights and also condemn the move by the security forces to arrest those who came to protest without ill will but to express their rights and voice out their problems.
“We want to remind government, the National Assembly and security forces that when Gambians pronounced NEVER AGAIN and pursued change, we want to realize a reliable system change. Gambians never expected to slide back into the oppressive and brutal regime that led this country for two decades.”
According to CoPG, the total repeal of the 1997 constitution and the Public Order Act, must be the basis of a reliable system change, adding its rather unfortunate that the issues that President Adama Barrow put to the Gambians in 2016 included a total overhaul of the system and particularly the Public Order Act which was the cause of a lot of human rights violations in the country, the deposing of the former president and the election of President Adama Barrow to office.
“Therefore if Gambians are treated with honesty and respect, this Public Order Act would have been in the trash. The government needs to be reminded of the pledges to the international community and organizations to repeal the Public Order Act, in their effort to erase the negative policies that traumatized a lot of Gambians,” the statement concluded.