Cherno Marenah has been removed as solicitor general and shipped into the foreign service, The Fatu Network understands.
Marenah had worked at the ministry of justice and attorney general’s office for many years.
Governments spokesperson Ebrima Sankareh said Marenah is not dismissed but instead redeployed to the ‘diplomatic mission’.
Marenah is yet to respond to a request for comment.
Police have been asked to arrest tourism minister Hamat Bah and charge him for false publication and broadcasting.
Bah had said over the weekend Niamina East MP Omar Ceesay voted against a plan for the construction of roads in Niamina East under the supplementary appropriation bill.
But according to Madi Jobarteh, Mr Bah should be arrested by police.
He said: “The IGP should arrest and charge Hamat NK Bah for false publication and broadcasting for contempt by distorting the proceedings of the National Assembly and insulting & threatening a NAM in a statement at an official event!”
UDP members in the United Kingdom have congratulated leader Ousainou Darboe and his new UDP executive on their
Delegates numbering 1,000 pummeled Darboe back as leader of UDP at a congress held over the weekend.
And in a letter signed by UDP UK Chapter executive committee chairman Lamin Conateh, supporters there greeted Darboe and his new national executive on their election.
The missive reads;
On behalf of the general members and Executive Committee of UDP UK Chapter, I wish to congratulate all those elected to the National Executive of UDP for a new two-year term, under your dynamic and steadfast leadership. Whilst we sincerely welcome election of all those dedicated officials, we are delighted to see two formidable members affiliated with our Chapter in the persons of Mr Jai Paul Thakur elected as Deputy Administrative Secretary External Affairs and Mr Yankuba Darboe, a member of our Advisory Team elected as Deputy Administrative Secretary for Media and Communication. We are confident that their addition to the team will be of immense value to the realisation of our shared goal.
My sincere appreciation and gratitude go to distinguished delegates from the length and breadth of the country, Lord Mayor Talib Bensouda and his entire team of Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) and organising committee for their collective selfless efforts in making Congress 2020 a resounding success to the joy of thousands of our Party members and sympathisers. From the onset, the event had hallmarks of an excellent structure which couldn’t have come without determination, tenacity of delegates and members of the organising committee.
At the level of the UDP UK Chapter, we have noted with keen interest five-month policy agenda you outlined during your acceptance speech. The announcement you made that a UDP Government would commit itself to the Maputo declaration on Agriculture i.e contributing 10% of national budget to this key sector is a welcome news, given the importance this sector provides in terms of gainful employment for majority of Gambians and overall economic development. Similarly, welcoming are pronouncements that a UDP Government would put in place functional Youth and Educational Policies to realign them to our national developmental aspirations. Revamping these sectors is what majority of our citizens have been yearning for from independence. We’re confident that those dreams would be realised under your honest and dedicated leadership.
To conclude, I wish to assure you of willingness and determination of our Chapter to work diligently with the newly elected National Executive to ensure our shared objective of winning Presidential Elections on Dec.4th 2021 is attained. The Congress has set the stage for us to redouble our efforts towards the roadmap to 2021. God Willing, under your great leadership, we will triumph. God bless UDP and Republic of The Gambia.
Donkeys and horses distributed to Gambian farmers were based on efforts by the ministry of agriculture and the national assembly, Amie Fabureh has said.
President Barrow came under heavy criticism recently when farmers were given donkeys. His critics said he took away tractors from the farmers and taunted them by giving them donkeys.
But speaking at Pateh Sam during President Barrow’s meeting there, agriculture minister Amie Fabureh said the president knows nothing about the animals.
“President Barrow knows nothing about these donkeys and horses. The MPs and us at the ministry are who make those donkeys and horses to be realised.
“It’s Gambia government’s money because it was the finance minister who took out the money on the advice of the MPs,” the minister said.
President Adama Barrow has announced rice will be distributed to Gambians again ‘before two months’.
Speaking at Pateh Sam in Niamina East as he continued his tour of the nation, the president said his only vocation is to cater to the needs of Gambians.
“I have given you rice but I will give you rice again. Before you count two months, another rice come [to you] again. Our only preoccupation is the people of this country, to help them,” the president said at a meeting held on Saturday.
According to the president, only a liar would say his witness is dead – insisting his witnesses are in The Gambia, living.
“The rice my government distributed came here in Pateh Sam. We gave rice, we gave sugar, we gave oil, we gave money. So my witnesses are in Pateh Sam here too,” he said.
UDP leader Ousainou Darboe has wondered about the kind avarice that would possess a leader of one of the world’s poorest countries to propose to spend a massive D627M in one year.
At UDP’s congress over the weekend, Mr Darboe insisted the nation’s scarce resources were being used to cater to the personal needs of President Barrow and his cronies.
Darboe said: “Our country today is saddled with a president and a leadership that subordinates the urgent and life sustaining needs of the citizens to the obscene or scandalous allocation of very scarce resources to the personal needs of the president and his cronies.
“There is no better example of this than how farmers and the vital sector of agriculture upon which tthree quarters of our people depend for their livelihood are treated in the 2021 budget. How can it be just or moral that the president of this country is being paid a salary of D250,000 a month and can turn around and further allocate himself D150,000 a day to spend on food.
“What king of unheard of gluttony would possess the leader of one of world’s poorest countries to spend more money on his personal food than is allocated for the medicine and equipment of our underfunded hospitals?
“In total, this president proposes to spend D627M on his office and the few people that works there and allocating only D402M for the entire ministry of agriculture. That is an outrage that every Gambian must refuse to accept. Because it condemns the majority of our population to poverty and neglect while their hard earned money is being schemed off and wasted by an uncaring administration.”
Gambians queued in long lines and showed former President Yahya Jammeh where real power resides, UDP leader Ousainou Darboe has said.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of UDP’s congress over the weekend, Darboe argued: “Our country is at a crossroads. After promises that was delivered by the courage, sacrifice and determined patience of the Gambian people, men and women of conscience pulled together and put aside superficial differences and confronted an entrenched tyranny with nothing more than a firm belief in the righteousness of their cause and the vote that represents their voice and the sovereign power that resides in that vote.
“They queued in long lines, not giving in to either fear or inducement and showed a 22-year dictator where real power resides and the best way to exercise it. With faith and determination, they defeated a tyrant and restored the democracy to we the people who are the principal political custodians.
“This new-found democracy was neither given by the defeated tyrant nor his successor. It was earned by those sovereign Gambian citizens who dedicated themselves to the duty of fighting for their own freedom.
“You the Gambian people gave yourself the democracy you’re enjoying. It was not gifted to you by anyone. The was precisely the reason the world stood by us to ensure that the expressed will of the Gambians who voted for change was upheld.”
Hamat Bah has told Niamina East lawmaker Omar Ceesay in his face he must have spoken at his own funeral as he countered the lawmaker over his claims he fights for the people he represents at the national assembly.
MP Omar Ceesay spoke fierily at President Barrow’s Pateh Sam meeting on Saturday where he chronicled how his championed the cause of his people at parliament.
“I have stood in the National Assembly and said the people of Niamina East do not have water, I have stood in the national assembly and said the people of Niamina East do not have electricity. I have stood in the national assembly and said the people of Niamina East do not have roads. I have stood in the national assembly and said the people of Niamina East do not have gardens, I have stood in the national assembly and said the people of Niamina East do not have development. So I think this is what you have tasked me to say on your behalf at the national assembly and I think I did that and I think that’s my job and I am doing it,” Ceesay speaking at the top of his voice told the crowd.
Hamat later in his speech countered Ceesay by telling the people the lawmaker blocked efforts to bring development Niamina East in what could be interpreted as an attempt to cast mistrust between the people of Niamina East and the young MP.
“Your MP spoke here today. But I will remind him what he said at the national assembly where I was there. When the Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2020 was brought, to construct roads for you, he did not vote for it. I was sitting there till 1am. If it’s left to him, you will not get any roads. You said
“You won by just 40 votes. About five parties contested in Niamina and you won by 40 votes. This crowd gathered here is more than 10,000 people. So Mr MP, you must have been speaking at your own funeral today,” Hamat said.
Hamat Bah has charged Mamma Kandeh has his GDC party are political opportunists who took advantage of a situation back in 2016.
Speaking in Pateh Sam, Niamina, when the president held a meeting there, Bah said Gambians who opted for GDC turned to the party because they didn’t trust the leaders of the other political parties.
Bah sad: “I have said that GDC is like foam. If air blows it, it melts away. Political opportunists will not exceed Mamma Kandeh and GDC. The truth is in 2016, when we were negotiating a coalition, we all agreed for no one to stand alone. A lot of people had turned their backs on APRC.
“[But] the supporters of NRP didn’t want Hamat Bah because they didn’t trust the other parties. They didn’t trust Adama Barrow because he was with UDP. APRC did not trust Adama Barrow because of the yellow color UDP.
“Mamma Kandeh then appeared and they followed him and then they [Mamma Kandeh] thought it’s popularity. They thought what he will be able to fulfill what he promised them. They promised them the whole world.
“Life then moved until Adama Barrow became president, [later] separate with UDP, unite with Hamat Bah and others and form his own party and then everyone saw clear hope and clear truth in Adama Barrow. It’s the good work that brought people to you President Adama Barrow.”
Oley Dibba who joined UDP as recent as January this year has been elected as the new deputy administrative secretary of the party. Dibba, 52, settled for UDP after leaving the African Development Bank.
Her election to the key role comes as UDP elevated Alhagie S Darboe to the role of senior administrative secretary after death of Lamin Dibba rendered role vacant.
Alhagie S Darboe has been elected as new senior administrative secretary of United Democratic Party.
The top role was previously held by Lamin Dibba who died last month.
Darboe had been Dibba’s deputy and now has been elevated by UDP at the party’s congress on Saturday.
Yankuba Darboe and Haji Suwaneh who got detained at Mile Two over their role in a campaign against President Adama Barrow rule in January have been elected into UDP’s new executive.
Yankuba Darboe got the nod as UDP’s Deputy Administrative Secretary for Media and Communication while Suwaneh is elected as the 2nd Deputy National Youth President of the party. Another UDP member Karim Touray who also took part in the Three Years Jotna campaign and also got detained Karim Touray was tapped as 1st Deputy National Youth President of the party.
Gambians under the banner of the Three Years Jotna group protested twice to demand President Barrow’s resignation in line with his 2016 pledge to serve for only three years. Their January protest turned violent when police fired teargas on them and their leaders rounded up.
Ousainou Darboe has once more been pummeled as leader of the United Democratic Party at a high-level congress preceding next year’s presidential elections.
UDP has since on Friday been electing its new set of leaders; the new leaders emerged on Saturday evening with Darboe emerging as its secretary general.
Speaking shortly after his return to the UDP top role, Mr Darboe said: “I am elated and humbled by your show of trust in me to continue as your party leader. Thank you for the confidence, thank you for the support and thank you for the encouragement.
“I therefore gracefully accept your unanimous nomination and election and promise that I will continue to put United Democratic Party at the heart of everything I do.”
The Moroccan navy rescued on Saturday 127 Spain-bound migrants in the Mediterranean, official news agency MAP reported.
The migrants, including 14 women and two minors, are mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, said the agency quoting a military source.
They were traveling in several inflatable boats in the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates the African continent from Europe.
The migrants received the necessary first aid from the coast guards units of the Moroccan navy, before they were brought back to different Moroccan ports in the Mediterranean, it added.
Morocco has become a transit country for African migrants seeking to reach Europe for better living conditions. (XINHUA)
New dormitories at the Jeshwang detention center were unveiled by the Government of The Gambia, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).
The works have been realized in partnership with GAMWORKS through We Khan Construction. UNDP provided funding which enabled the refurbishment of the dormitories to address the urgent congestion in Mile 2 which has been further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. The support to the Prisons also included 200 bunkbeds and 200 mattresses from GCCI.
The Director General of the Prisons Service, Mr. Ansumana Manneh, The CEO of The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, (GCCI) Mr. Alieu Secka and the UNDP Resident Representative, Ms. Aissata De, jointly opened the newly built dormitories and perimeter wall of the Jeshwang detention center.
The innovative approach of the partnership with the private sector, such as GCCI was premised on the Agenda 2030 principle to leave no one behind, and this includes prisoners as well in the COVID-19 response. This was vital to ensure that the detainees of congested Mile 2 were also spared from the fatal spread of the pandemic, said Ms. Aissata De, Resident Representative of UNDP.
“The year 2020 has been a very difficult year for the world, but thanks to UNDP and the GCCI it has been a progressive year for Prisons Service due to the newly built dormitories, PPE, renovation of infirmary” stated Mr. Ansumana Manneh, The Prisons Service Director General.
Our early intervention in the Prisons helped to reduce and prevent a COVID-19 outbreak in the Prisons, stated Mr. Alieu Secka, CEO of GCCI.
The new dormitories come at a critical time for the prisons as it faced the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthens ongoing efforts to mitigate infection risks. The Prison Service, in partnership with UNDP and GCCI worked in a diligent manner to decongest the Remand Wing and secure the perimeter wall for Jeshwang. In addition to the completion of the dormitories, the 200 bunkbeds and 200 mattresses. The Prison Service was also provided a 30-seater and 6 months of fuel and maintenance from GCCI. The GCCI also distributed 100,000 worth of detergents and 10 handwashing stations to prison facilities. (UNDP press release).
Imam Bakawsu Fofana has said he’s happy Imam Chebo Cham is attacking President Adama Barrow and his deputy political adviser Dou Sanno.
Imam Cham lashed at the Barrow government recently after media reports of a coronavirus relief package lined for sex workers. The package comes from a government agency – National Aids Secretariat – and Imam Cham insisted the Barrow government was promoting prostitution in the country as he vowed to speak the truth.
Imam Bakawsu Fofana thinks Imam Cham is contradicting himself over previous claims a leader should be followed and not criticised.
Imam Fofana said: “Last year this time Three Years Jotna got up against Adama Barrow. I got up and asked Adama Barrow not to proceed with power but with humanity. Chebo Cham delivered a sermon and held brief for Dou Sanno and Adama Barrow.
“Today he’s insulting Adama Barrow and Dou Sanno, calling them out, saying he’s telling them the truth. So on the whole, one can tell truth to the president. For 20 years they never spoke truth to power, today you’re doing it. Thank you.
“Last year by this time, it’s Bakawsu you were criticising in your sermon [for criticising President Barrow] with Dou Sanno and Adama Barrow liking it. Today, you’re insulting them. That has made me happy. Thank you. [That] I am alive to hear you say you’re telling truth to power.”
President Adama Barrow has stated that Gambians will see development like never before if all of the nation’s elected officials come from his party, the National People’s Party.
“If the MPs are NPP, if the councillors are NPP, if the chairmen are NPP you will see development that you have never seen. It’s a coalition government now. There are some people who think differently from us. Some think along selfish lines but that’s why we differentiate things. They are the people on the left and we are on the right,” the president said in Wuli amid his tour of the nation.
According to the president however, there are people who have only one preoccupation: to cause damage.
“But there are people whose only vocation is destruction. But we will continue to work and let them continue to talk,” the president said.
By Sarjo Brito
Leader of the United Democratic Party Ousainou Darboe during the party’s biennial national congress currently underway at the Paradise Suites Hotel reminded his supporters and Gambians at large that Gambia’s newfound democracy was not handed on a silver platter neither by Jammeh nor his successor President Adama Barrow.
The UDP leader said tyranny was defeated and democracy restored by the Gambian people who dedicated and risked their lives to the duty of fighting for their own freedom.
‘’You the Gambian people gave yourself the democracy we are enjoying. It was not gifted to you by anyone. Men and women of conscience came together and put aside superficial political differences and confronted an entrenched tyranny with nothing more than a firm believe in the righteousness of their course and the vote that represent their voice, and the sovereign power that resides in that vote,” Darboe in a speech on Friday said.
The UDP Leader said his party is ready for what he describes as a fruitful and robust engagement during this congress as they collectively chart a way forward and prepare for what would be a defining election come 2021.
Darboe also honoured late UDP members like Lamin Ndambu Dibba and Solo Sandeng who gallantly fought against dictatorship. The UDP leader said their sacrifice to the nation must not be forgotten and urged supporter of the party to continue their course with focus and consistency.
GDC’s MC Cham Jnr has sounded the alarm of politics of deception on the side of NPP as NPP takes its political ruthlessness to Niamina East.
NPP stalwarts such as Dou Sanno have vowed to take Niamina East from GDC because of ‘impertinence’ of their lawmaker Omar Ceesay. It came shortly after NPP wrested Niamina West from GDC.
Aware of NPP’s activities in Niamina East, GDC national president MC Cham Jnr in an audio message said: “There a politics the people of NPP want to carry out in Niamina East since everyone knows Honourable Omar Ceesay is there problem. Since they have not been able to bring him to their midst.
“Now they’re taking people there in Niamina East to say they are GDC members and have cross-carpeted to NPP. Omar Ceesay’s [constituency] executive is intact, no one has left. It’s the desk officer that we sacked.
“So if they say Omar Ceesay will lose Niamina East they’re just talking. The people of Niamina East love Omar Ceesay. But right now it’s people like Fafa [of NPP] who are going around asking people who have never been GDC members and asking them to say they are GDC supporters.”
President Adama Barrow has told Gambians rice, sugar and oil distributed to them to soothe their pains inflicted by coronavirus came from themselves.
“I gave you rice, sugar and oil. All these are your wealth. It’s what we put together and look at those that need help and are Gambians and it’s their wealth and we returned it to them,” the president said on Thursday in Sutukoba, URR as his tour of the country continued.
The president in his speech said his government will not let anything distract it from putting across the development it intends to deliver.
“The work taking place in the country even if you close your eyes you will see it. The blind are seeing it.
“Those that pretending to be sleeping have now woken up and are seeing it. Those that fled have now returned. Work is the only truth. God neither reward wiseness nor talking, he rewards only work,” the president said.
