Gambia’s Minister of Lands, Musa Drammeh has stated that the appeals court ruling on the proposed KMC commission of inquiry does not mean that the case is over, assuring all concerned that his office was waiting for “legal opinions” on how to proceed with the matter.
Last month (January) the minister established a commission of inquiry to probe into allegations of fraud and malpractice at the council.
The council later filed an application for the court to quash the inquiry. Last week, an appeals court judge declared that the Local Government Act empowers the minister to institute a commission but that, ‘there is no provision in the Act or any other law’ empowering him to establish the KMC commission as he did.
Reacting to the ruling, Minister Drammeh told local media that, “there was a decision given [at the court]. It was given against me and the attorney general. Both of us were in the case. Now, we are looking at the ruling.
They have given a decision. We are looking at that decision. The legal office will give us an opinion about it and from there we can proceed. When I was setting up the commission, I was doing it with the minister of justice. Now that there is a ruling, they will interpret to me what the ruling means. From there, I will know what line of action to take.”
He used the opportunity to discard the rumour that his ministry is being used by the Barrow administration to witch-hunt members of the opposition.
“They can say what they want to say, but anybody who knows me well, knows that’s not my nature,” he said.
