The government has tinkered with the emergency health regulation around markets across the country.

Vendors have complained bitterly over the previous decree which allows them to operate for only eight hours.

The government on Thursday has however made changes to the decree allowing up to 13 hours of market time.

“…all markets throughout The Gambia, regardless of the category of goods they sell, shall now open from 6:00am to 6:00pm daily to allow for normal cleansing. Boutiques, food and non-essential vendors and supermarkets shall now resume their normal business hours,” government spokesperson Ebrima Sankareh said in a statement Thursday.

It comes as the market union threatened to stage a sit-down strike which would have seen the country’s markets go without food and other essential items.

A 49-year-old female senior nurse has died of coronavirus – as the nation’s cononavirus deaths rose to 108.

The ministry of health confirmed the nurse’s death in its latest report saying she was admitted at the Sanatorium.

The health ministry is however saying the deceased nurse had a comorbid condition (hypertensive).

It comes as the ministry also revealed that the country’s coronavirus cases have risen to 3,485 following the registration of 12 new cases.

Five African youth are among 17 young advocates recognized by the United Nations for their work helping the world combat challenges and playing a part in the push to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Unveiled on Friday, the young leaders — aged between 18 and 29 years — represent diverse voices of young people from every region of the world, and are credited with inspiring millions of young people around the world to support the SDGs.

The five Africans named in the list of 17 include; Vanessa Nakate (Uganda), Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi (Nigeria), Mariama Djambony Badji (Senegal), Loay Radwan (Egypt) and Satta Sheriff (Liberia).

According to Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, amid unprecedented times, the 2020 Class are a “clear example” of how the youth are leading the way in shaping a more sustainable and inclusive future for all.

“Despite being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, young people around the world continue to demonstrate immense resilience, resourcefulness and leadership in finding innovative solutions to recover better and achieve the SDGs”, she said.

Vanessa Nakate

23-year-old Vanessa Nakate, a climate activist, grabbed headlines earlier this year for being erroneously cropped out of a photo by a media agency after joint press conference in Davos alongside fellow activists including Greta Thunberg, Loukina Tille, Luisa Neubauer and Isabelle Axelsson.

She first came to the limelight in January 2019 for her solitary strike in her country against inaction on the climate crisis. She staged a solo protest outside Uganda’s Parliament for months, thereby drawing the country’s attention to climate crisis and eventually inspiring other youth to join in calls for action. Nakate founded the Youth for Future Africa and the likewise Africa-based Rise Up Movement.[6]

Satta Fatumata

Satta Fatumata Sheriff is a Child Rights Advocate, first elected female Speaker of the Liberian Children’s Parliament and Executive Director of Youth in Action for Peace and Empowerment (YAPE) a children and youth driven Nongovernmental Organization founded to advocate for Liberian Children, girls and other vulnerable groups in society.

Worth noting, Fatumata started her activism aged just 9 years old.

Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi

Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi is the founder of Stand to End Rape (STER), aimed at raising awareness on sexual abuse in Nigeria. The West African country has been dogged by sexual abuse for some time, prompting protests in Abuja and other cities earlier this year.

The multi-award winning gender equality advocate boasts of six years experience in deploying effective solutions to challenge systemic social barriers that promote violence against women and girls and utilising social and behaviour change communication to improve SGBV knowledge, attitudes and practices in order to achieve Gender Equality.

Osowobi’s initiative seeks to improve awareness of violence against women and provide support to victims of sexual assault.

Mariama Djambony Badji

22-year-old Mariama Djambony Badji is co-founder and CEO of DNA SARL, a construction company that offers living environments using natural and local materials. As a civil engineer and passionate about the environment, she’s currently working on the construction of safe, comfortable and eco-friendly housing.

Since 2015, she has been volunteering with Africa Feliz Senegal, a non-profit association that aims to fight against poverty and irregular emigration through skills training for young people and women.

Loay Radwan

21-year-old environmental engineer Loay Radwan is the CEO & Cofounder at G-Beetle, a rising startup in the AgriTech Field, which aims to rationalize the usage of water in irrigation. The invention will help farmers monitor among other things crop temperature and soil water content. This is essential in measuring the efficiency of irrigation systems and the knowledge of what parts of the farms require more attention. (CGTN Africa)

UDP leader has reacted to President Adama Barrow’s declaration his government is determined to have general elections held in 2021, as scheduled saying: ‘We don’t expect him to say anything other than that’.

President Barrow had on Thursday assured that his government would ensure elections are held despite the coronavirus crisis insisting, “my conviction is that, whatever our position or belief may be, we should always concede to the national interest, and forego selfishness”.

UDP leader Ousainou Darboe reacting to the president’s declaration said: “We do not expect him to say anything other than that. After all in 1982, elections were held in this country under a state of public emergency, although the state of emergency may be different but there was a state of public emergency which had affected freedom of assembly and so forth. We didn’t expect anything different.”

The UDP leader also reviewed the president’s SONA address saying: “It appears to be more of a speech or deliberations on the COVID-19. I think that is all. The whole speech is about that. It’s a sermon on coronavirus.

“The speech is not different from the previous ones and I’m sure when you look at the last budget, you see that it’s not very different from it and I’m sure in December when the minister presents his budget, it’s not going to be very different from this.”

By Lamin Njie

President Adama Barrow has emphasised that The Gambia’s partnership with ‘development partners’ is based purely on mutual respect as he barely reacted to the debate on people of different sexual orientations

“I would like to draw the curtain on recent debates about the rights of people with different sexual orientations. Let me emphasise that our partnership with our development partners is based purely on mutual respect for the advancement of our people,” the president said on Thursday while speaking to MPs about his government’s development plans.

Gambians have in the past weeks debated strongly against homosexuality after a gay rights post in May by the European Union mission in the country.

The National Human Rights Commission also didn’t help matters when it asked the government in a report to ensure that the rights of all Gambians regardless of their sexual orientations are protected. The commission placed special emphasis on Gambian gays.

Homosexuality lifestyle is criminal under Gambian laws – and the debate has seen the Gambia government issuing a statement in May saying it has no plans to decriminalise homosexuality.

Detectives have visited Gambia Revenue Authority in Banjul following a burglary incident on 11 September, police said.

Police spokesman Superintendent Lamin Njie said: “We can confirm an office breaking incident at the GRA reported on the 11th September 2020.

“According to the report received, no money was taken, a TV set and desktop computer were among items taken.

“Crime scene investigators have visited the scene and investigations are currently ongoing.”

Police on Wednesday swooped on a birthday party in Bijilo where they arrested 22 people including two Senegalese soldiers who said they form part of an ECOMIG contingent.

Police spokesman Lamin Njie confirmed the incident in a statement.

The statement said: “On the 16th Sept 2020, Our Officers on patrol got a tip off about certain individuals throwing up a Birthday party at Bijilo thereby violating the regulations.

“The team arrived at the venue where they found a crowd attending a Birthday pool party.

“Twenty-two individuals where arrested together with the proprietor of the venue. Among the arrested people two individuals identified themselves as members of the Senegalese ECOMIG Contingent.

“They are all being processed for appropriate actions.”

Gambia Revenue Authority has confirmed that a burglary incident occurred at its HQ in Banjul.

Reports emerged on Thursday an incident of burglary had hit the nation’s leading revenue collection institution.

The authority said in a statement Thursday afternoon: “It has come to the notice of the GRA Management that certain media outlets have been reporting a story of a burglary and theft at the office of the Deputy Commissioner General and Head of Domestic Taxes Department leading to millions of taxpayer’s monies taken away together with other office equipment.

“First and foremost, we want to salute the efforts of the media in the new Gambia in trying to keep the public well informed and helping the citizenry hold government to account. These efforts are by no means insignificant in helping us strengthen democracy and the rule of law in the country. We want to clarify certain statements made by the media for the interest of accurate reporting and to keep the public properly informed on this matter.

“We want to inform the general public that the GRA is established by an Act of the National Assembly in 2004 and has structures and checks and balances to ensure full accountability and transparency in its operations.

“Moving to the subject matter, GRA wishes to confirm that the incident of the burglary and theft at the office of the Deputy Commissioner General did take place on Thursday night, 10th September 2020. The incident was discovered the following day on Friday, 11th September 2020, when the Deputy Commissioner General reported to work in the morning and found his office upside down.

“GRA can confirm that office equipment installed in the office and a safe for keeping office items were taken away. We want to clarify that the safe is not for keeping state funds as no revenue collection responsibilities are assigned to that office. GRA can confirm that the matter was reported to the Inspector General of Police who immediately dispatched police officers from the Crime Management Unit of the Gambia Police Force who visited the office, collected evidence and opened an investigation into the matter. The matter is now under police investigation and so we will not be pushed into any making speculation on the matter as the right government agency is doing its work on the matter.

“GRA wishes to clarify that the office of the Deputy Commissioner General is not a revenue collection office neither is it an office for the safekeeping of revenues collected under the revenue laws administered by the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA). Under the current structure of the GRA, revenue departments perform only tax administration functions and the responsibility to collect the revenues and carryout daily banking is handled by the Department of Finance and Accounting.

“All revenues collected are banked daily in line with the GRA Act, 2004. In addition to the collection and banking of revenues, there is an Internal Audit Department to ensure that all checks and balances are implemented in line with the relevant laws and procedures. The entire operations of the Authority are subjected to both internal and external audits and the submission of audited accounts and activity reports to the National Assembly.

“It should be of interest for the public to know that GRA has implemented many reforms aimed at bringing efficiency, effectiveness and best practices in tax administration. These include: as per the Central Bank regulations in place, all cash payments above hundred thousand dalasis can only be made through the commercial banks and not to GRA cashiers; through the Real Time Gross Settlement payment system, taxpayers usually issue payment advise to their commercial banks to make payments of tax on their behalf by making direct transfers from their accounts to the GRA revenue collection accounts at the Central Bank of The Gambia; GRA has entered into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with most of the commercial banks in the country.

“Through these MoUs the Authority deployed its IT systems, namely the GamTaxNet and ASYCUDA++ to the partner banks allowing their customers to make tax and customs payments at the banks. The banks are enabled with these systems to collect revenues on behalf of GRA, issue payment receipts to taxpayers and transfer all funds to the GRA revenue collection accounts at the Central Bank of The Gambia.

“The reforms undertaken in the area of revenue collection and banking by GRA and the Central Bank has ensured that very limited revenue collection and cash handling activities are taking place in the GRA offices.

“In conclusion, we want to thank the media for partnering with the national revenue collection agency in our sensitization and education programs geared towards national development. While GRA desists from making comments during the investigation of this matter, we kindly urge the general public to provide any information that will assist the Police in their investigations. In the same vein we want the media to be responsible and hold itself to account by desisting from misinformation and sensational journalism. The GRA Management is surprised that the on-line media who have worked on this story made no attempts to corroborate their information with statements from GRA.”

By Lamin Njie

An MP took on President Adama Barrow after he removed his face mask during the State of the Nation Address.

Tumana MP Foday NM Drammeh stood Thursday and asked the speaker to ask President Barrow to put on his face mask – as the President attempted to begin his speech.

“Honourable Speaker, can you ask the president to put on a face mask since it’s the rule of the parliament? Thank you,” Drammeh told the speaker.

The speaker however appeared not interested as she chose not to react to the MP’s request. The awkward moment saw the President all the while looking at the MP.

Wearing of face mask is compulsory under the public health emergency regulations that have been triggered due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Health minister Dr Ahmadou Lamin Samateh who is the custodian of the law governing face mask however insisted there some exceptions.

“You know when we say face mask rules and you know there are quite some exceptions. There are those people sometimes when they speak… How long was that speech? It was a very long speech. So when some people speak with a face mask for that long, sometimes it creates challenges for them with regards to breathing and so on and so forth,” Dr Samateh told The Fatu Network.

Gambia Action Party has issued a statement expressing its disappointment over a story the party says is false.

According to GAP, GUNJUR ONLINE carried a story under the heading ‘GAP Leader Faces Trial in Multi-Million Dalasi Fraud Case’ – and the party says the story is incorrect.

The party said in a statement signed by Public Relations Director Alhaji M. Bayo: “The administration of GAP has contacted the number on their page to expressed our disappointment on the false publication but amazingly, the main administrator claimed that he wasn’t aware of such publication as most of their editors are in USA and UK. Then, we drew conclusions that no verification was made prior to the publication and their hatred has only strengthened the party than ever before.

“As a transparent political party, we did our findings from the very moment this scandal brokered from both ends and we came to realized that the business was clean beyond reasonable limits. The property is owned by both the GAP leader and his brother and the documents are in the name of his blood brother who shares the same mother and father with the GAP leader who lives in Angola. The deal collapsed mainly because the brother requested more cash than initially agreed with GAP leader.

“We also realized that the lady was in haste to complete the deal and the balance to be paid later as she made a down payment of 6million CFA and a Ford Taurus American vehicle after the deal legally signed between both parties in a renowned Gambian lawyer’s chambers. The legality of the business is what GAP was interested in and it’s far from criminality. The matter was then reported to the police by the a brother of the woman an agreement was reached, the lady finally sued him to court. She complained to the freedom media outlet and cover the elements of truth which GAP discovered. He has more plans to ensure that everything is done within the frames of peace.

“Thus, we believe that in this 21st century, information sharing must be protected and verified from both ends before any malicious broadcast. In mind that challenges must come our way as a party, but that doesn’t limit our pace in the political arena as vibrant Gambians are there to judge which party wins the upcoming elections. We remain committed to the national discourse and haters cannot afford to stop one of the fastest growing party in the country.

“We equally noticed under the comment section that the GMC Tida Bobo Kijera disrespected the stance of GAP and would further want to advise the national executive committee of GAP which she has no audacity. We respect the leader of GMC party leader and the memorandum of understanding of the Inter Party Committee (IPC-GAMBIA) as well as the code of conduct to which GAP is signatory. We shall make no further remark on this regard.”

By Sarjo Brito and Lamin Njie, at the National Assembly

President Adama Barrow stated on Thursday The Gambia was on a ‘steep’ rise towards economic boom when the ‘unexpected’ struck – the coronavirus pandemic – and caused a major hold-back.

President Barrow on Thursday spent one hour and twenty minutes addressing members of the national assembly on his government’s plans as required by law. It was the fourth time the president was involved in a State of the Nation Address since he took power nearly four years ago.

The coronavirus pandemic meant this year’s State of the Nation Address took a subdued outlook, with members of the public, the business and diplomatic community all missing.

House speaker Mariam Jack Denton insisted that this year’s State of the Nation Address is being conducted in a ‘very unusual manner since we’re living in extraordinary times’.

“I have acted in good faith and conscience to invoke Section 98(2) of the 1997 constitution and Clause 11(4) of the Standing Orders of the National Assembly to restrict the admission of strangers into the public gallery, in line with the general principles of public gathering regulations amid Covid-19,” she said.

The president while addressing MPs said his government was on course towards delivering democratic dividends when the coronavirus pandemic struck and caused a disruption.

Mr Barrow said in the early stages of his speech: “Today, my address presents the successes and challenges of a country that was on a steep rise towards economic boom and socio-political transformation when the unexpected struck. This was the sudden outbreak and rapid spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic.”

“This is a crisis that has taken the world by storm, and remains a threat to all nations – rich and poor, big and small.

“In The Gambia, the momentum and expectations for rapid progress were evidently very high. Major development projects and achievements closely followed one another, as support and resources were sought and tapped from various sources.

“The people were politically excited, and my government was optimistic of delivering on our promise of leading the nation to unprecedented economic growth and social regeneration in a democratic haven for all Gambians.

“Unfortunately, like other nations, we had to curtail certain economic activities, restrict movement, scale down work schedules and, finally, declare a state of emergency. Economically, key revenue-earning institutions have since been crippled, people grounded and communities adversely affected,” he said.

President Adama Barrow will today appear before lawmakers to address them on the plans and policies of his government.

The president is mandated by law to appear at least once before members of parliament to talk to them about his priorities.

Dubbed State of the Nation Address, this year’s event is however happening at a time when the country confronts the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Latrikunda Sabiji MP Saikou Marong has made it categorically clear he will not support a retroactive law – as he offered his view of the draft constitution on Wednesday.

The draft constitution has been a subject of intense protest by supporters of President Adama Barrow as the draft constitution states President Barrow’s current term would be counted. It means the President will be allowed to be in office for only one term under the new constitution.

“Honourable Speaker, you talk about the term limit: nobody will say that we’re not in support of the term limit. But what we are denying here or what we are saying or what I am saying is that, I am not going to support any a retroactive law. Mark my words. I am not saying I am not supporting the two term limit of the president,” Saikou Marong insisted Wednesday.