Senegal: Police arrest 43 people over alleged human trafficking
By AFP
Senegal’s national police have arrested 43 people in an investigation into alleged human trafficking by followers of an influential religious leader whose office denied the allegations on Monday.
People living at Serigne Modou Kara Mbacke’s “reform centres” in the Dakar area were “victims of sequestration and mistreatment”, according to a statement Sunday by the gendarmerie, alleging physical abuse and malnourishment.
The arrests were carried out last Thursday through Saturday when more than 370 people who were housed at the centers were freed, the statement said.
Mbacke belongs to the Mouride brotherhood, a powerful Sufi Muslim order, and is the head of a political party.
His “reform centres” across the West African country mainly target wayward youths.
The investigation has uncovered a human trafficking network that was also involved in “scooter theft (and) cannabis trafficking”, Sunday’s statement said.
The alleged victims lived “in deplorable sanitary conditions,” it said, adding that they were clearly severely malnourished and had “visible signs of corporal abuse”.
Some of them “appeared to have lost their minds,” it said.
Victims alleged that several people have died at the centers in recent years, with the most recent death occurring last week.
Mbacke’s press office denied the accusations, saying in a statement: “The gendarmerie did not find drugs in any of the reform centres, (which take in) victims of drug addiction, young ex-convicts and the mentally impaired.”
It said overcrowded conditions at the centres were a result of their relative success combined with a lack of resources.
Instead of “punishing” the group, the government should help centres that have “succeeded where official structures don’t have solutions despite their budget of billions,” the statement said.
More than 90 percent of Senegal is Muslim and most of the faithful follow Sufi brotherhoods, which retain considerable economic and political clout in the former French colony of 16 million people.
Gambian President Adama Barrow has to read the Wuhan-Files
I hope Gambian President Adama Barrow and his close advisers are following the hot revelations on CNN about the “Wuhan-Files”, classified-leaked documents from China confirming how the communist government mishandled the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in its early spate. The secret documents did not only confirm what several Chinese dissidents had said all along about reports received from their family members of more Chinese killed by the disease than the government had reported, but further disclosed the secrecy aimed at keeping the rising number of infections concealed to the world until it was too late. That even the first 6000 proven infections were reported to be less than half that number. In total, the Chinese government reported about 4000 deaths from the virus, while dissidents put the number to over 700,000.
They had also strongly opposed requests from the World Health Organization scientists to allow them access to the locations in Wuhan to independently investigate how the virus turned deadly from there. And when the world was still in shock, questioning how the killer virus started in China, President Xi Jinping was dogmatically against any independent foreign scientists to go and probe into the root of the plague.
We all could recall when the US government at the peak of Americans’ death rate from COVID-19 around June/July announced the disproportionate death rate on African Americans, compared to whites giving rise to the Chinese in their ill-conceived, short-lived and shameless tactics of blaming the African migrants living in China for bringing the disease from Africa to the extent of brutally persecuting blacks in their major cities. US State Department had to even warn African Americans living in China to be extra cautious of vigilante groups in key cities.
So for President Adama Barrow to say that world leaders like him shared the guilt of the globalization of COVID-19 by their failure to help the Chinese government control the virus in its first upsurge sounded like an ignorant pandering to falsehood. He either didn’t know what he was saying or was afraid of calling out China for their recklessness and angering his government donors and charity givers.
China is not responding to the new revelations from the leaked documents and may never do so until they find a good excuse of disputing it as habitual, making it ever more compelling for a concerted effort by world leaders to ensure that the communist government paid for the damage they inflicted to humankind and African nations in particular. Exempt President Adama Barrow.
In my opinion, it is very possible that if the Chinese are left unpunished and allowed to continue their uncooperative tendencies in such deadly matters, another killer virus could in the near or long future erupt again after being already exposed to their 2003 SARS virus that infected 8000 and killed 800 Chinese and Vietnamese and their COVID-19 that so far has infected over 63 million and killed 1.5 million people worldwide. Another pandemic from this secretive communist nation could very well cause our extinction as humans. Call me a pessimist, but I will keep on reiterating this warning of Communist China posing the biggest existential threat to our survival as a species. We used to fear the detonation of nuclear bombs in a senseless superpower war as the biggest threat to our civilization; but after COVID-19 with close to five-thousand more different strains of coronaviruses reported in certain cave bats in Wuhan, the likelihood of another killer virus emerging from reckless China far outweighs any probability of a nuclear war or sophisticated terrorists manufacturing and detonating a dirty bombs in crowded cities.
We cannot let China get away with this crime, period.
Thanks for reading.
SAMSUDEEN SARR
BANJUL, THE GAMBIA.
INDIA AMBASSADOR GV srinivas – COMMENT: India has been a steadfast partner of Gambia in Development partnership
The Ambassador of India to Senegal and High Commissioner Designate to The Gambia has stated that India has been a steadfast partner of The Gambia with regard to development partnership. In an OpEd dedicated to the inauguration of the Electricity Expansion Project in the Greater Banjul Area on 28 November 2020 in Kiang Kwinella, GV srinivas said the project has been completed in time despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. Below is the diplomat’s take on India-Gambia bilateral relations titled ‘Inauguration of the Electricity Expansion Project in the Greater Banjul Area on 28 November 2020’.
– Ambassador GV srinivas –
India has been a steadfast partner of the Gambia in Development Partnership. The electricity expansion project in the Greater Banjul Area has been completed in time despite the challenges posed by the covid 19 pandemic. This underlines very clearly the solidarity of India with The Gambia in the fight against the pandemic, as the two fight not only for lives but also livelihoods.
Just as president Adama Barrow in the Gambia, Prime Minister Modi in India has been leading from the front during the tumultuous and pandemic times.
The year 2020 has been a defining experience for all of us. In India it has reinforced our determination to build a stronger national economy, with robust industrial capacities and deft use of technology. Technology is a cross-cutting instrument, whether in factories or farms, in software or social transformation.
We have learnt this over the past few years in India as digital banking and biometric identities have made our financial system more inclusive and accessible to underprivileged sections; as renewable energy and water conservation and recharge have sought to redress ecological and environmental imbalances; and as IT and biotech have emerged as cutting-edge tools for economic opportunity and societal transformation.
A slew of reforms introduced in India has positioned it as a favourite of MNCs given what India has to offer viz: Openness, Opportunities and Options. A series of infrastructure projects in India including in the area of optical fiber connectivity, solar power plant, river navigation have been inaugurated even during the Covid-19 times.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been the most globally disruptive event since World War II. Its devastating impact on society and on the economy is still being tabulated. Recovery, resilience and rebuilding will require both perseverance and planning.
When the pandemic struck, India found itself short of critical health supplies. We did not manufacture personal protective equipment (PPEs) or ventilators. Only two companies in India made N95 masks and we were woefully lacking testing kits. In a short span of time, with a whole-of-government and I would say whole-of-society resolve, led by the Prime Minister, our people rose to the occasion.
National capacities were built, by the state, by civil society and by the private sector. We created 15,466 dedicated Covid-19 facilities with 1.5 million isolation beds. Today there are over a hundred PPE manufacturers in India, making 150,000 PPE kits a day. At last count, there were 48 companies making ventilators. And our Prime Minister mentioned that when we started with the Covid crisis there were 16,000 ventilators in hospitals all over India. Today, we plan to have 500,000 ventilators. Testing kits production has gone up considerably and we are conducting about a million tests a day.
We are supplying masks, PPEs, diagnostic test kits and ventilators to other countries. Our pharmaceutical companies ramped up production of drugs, especially HCQ and paracetamol. We shipped these to 150 countries even in lockdown conditions. We are on the cusp of the availability of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
As the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, India is at the forefront of this effort. We have at least five promising vaccine candidates at advanced stages of trials. Dozens of sites across India are conducting vaccine trials on all ages and social groups.
To ensure that the fruits of human endeavour to defeat Covid-19 reach all, India made a joint submission to the TRIPS Council on “Temporary Waiver from Certain Provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the Prevention, Containment and Treatment of COVID-19” In October 2020, to ensure that the intellectual property rights do not become a barrier in the timely and affordable access to medical products, including vaccines and therapeutics, and enable nations to deal effectively with the public health emergency arising out of Covid-19 pandemic, and received ready support from many countries.
Bilaterally, we have been organizing a series of events for strengthening trade and economic relations, capacity building including in wellness and healthcare.
The capacity building flagship program of India under the banner of Indian technical and economic cooperation in place since 1964 has evolved and now even has eITEC program.
Degrees from prominent Indian academic institutions are being brought to the door step of students from the Gambia, on gratis basis, via iLearn tele-education program. The rich knowledge of India in Yoga and Ayurveda, Indian traditional medicine, found effective to boost immunity and fight Covid-19, have been showcased during a series of interactive sessions in the recent past.
The Gambian healthcare workers joined in the eTraining course on COVID-19 Prevention and Management Guidelines. 25 Senior Civil Servants including Permanent Secretaries and Deputy Permanent Secretaries from The Gambia participated in a Special Training Programme organised for them at National Centre for Good Governance, Mussoorie from June 10 to June 21, 2019 under ITEC+ programme.
A Special Training Programme (June 20 to July 20, 2018) was organized by Foreign Service Institute for 20 Gambian Diplomats. I am also happy to share that during the current academic year 32 students have been awarded scholarship under the iLearn Program and 34 students were awarded ICCR Africa Scholarship for higher studies in premier universities in India.
And I am happy to mention that this is the highest number of scholarships ever awarded to the Gambia in any academic year.
People to People relations between our two countries are very strong. As part of the celebrations of 150th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, President Adama Barrow was kind enough to share his thoughts on the subject “What Gandhi Means to me”. DanceSmith Bollywood troupe performed in January 2020 to packed halls presenting Bollywood numbers.
55-year-old woman dies after son allegedly brutally battered her (and he has been arrested)
Police said on Tuesday they have arrested a man over the death of his 55-year-old mother.
Momodou Alieu Bah allegedly assaulted his mother on Monday leaving her with ‘severe’ head injuries. The incident happened in Brikama New Town
“She was taken to the Brikama Health Center where she was pronounced dead,” police spokesman Lamin Njie while confirming the incident said.
He added: “The suspect Momodou Alieu Bah believed to be mentally challenged is apprehended and currently helping the Police in their investigations.”
Ecowas throws its weight behind draft constitution whose NA collapse is pinned on President Barrow by critics
By Lamin Njie
Ecowas on Tuesday vowed to stand by Gambians in ensuring a new constitution is realised to serve as a basis for development.
Ecowas commission president Jean Claude Kassi Brou met President Adama Barrow at State House on Tuesday as part of an official trip to the country.
The Barrow administration since taking office in 2017 has pledged to oversee reforms among them a new constitution but the voting down of the draft constitution by lawmakers loyal to President Barrow in September has seen critics question the sincerity of the president and his government with regard to a new constitution. The pesident turning away foreign diplomats who made a last-minute effort to speak to him to prevail on the rebelling MPs only compounded matters.
Ecowas through its commission president said the bloc will support the country in getting a new constitution.
“It’s a very important reform project. We were informed about the recent evolution in the National Assembly but also step that have been taken by the authorities to really make sure that this project is ongoing. Ecowas of course is very keen in supporting, working and accompanying the authorities because a new constitution that is really broad based, that is supported by the majority of the Gambians will be really a very important basis to support social, political and economic human development.
“So we can only stand by the Gambian, behind the government and authorities to continue to work together and reach out to the maximum… We understand the process that has been taken to make sure that this project continues and Ecowas will support the country and support the authorities,” the Ecowas commission boss told reporters at the State House on Tuesday.
Breaking: Ferry gets stranded in middle of ocean sparking panic among passengers
The Kanilai ferry has sent passengers into panic mode after it halted half way into its journey to Banjul.
A passenger told The Fatu Network the ferry ran out of water. The Fatu Network could not immediately ascertain what caused the ferry to not be able to move.
Another passenger has told The Fatu Network the Kunta Kinteh ferry has been unleashed to save Kanilai. Small canoes have also been said to be helping passengers disembark the distressed ferry.
Army offers troops to Central African Republic but UN to investigate their competence
The army said on Monday it has pledged to unleash a Quick Reaction Force to a United Nations mission in April next year.
According to the army, it came after series of engagements with relevant UN departments especially the Department of Peace Support Operations.
“GAF was advised thereof to plan and tailor its deployment pledge with the State of Unit Requirement (SUR) of the United Nations Multidimensional Stabilisation Mission in Central African Republic (MINUSCA),” the army said.
The army added: “Consequent on the above, the UNDPO will conduct a virtual Advance Advisory Visit (AAV) to ascertain if GAF has the capability and ability in terms of personnel, equipment and appropriate training to deploy a QRF to the aforementioned mission.
“The AAV will however be conducted through online due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions.
“Therefore, live feed will be otherwise utilised to transmit on real time basis which will involve the use amongst other gadgets, a drone of Mavic 2 pro type, used purposely for capturing images.
“Furthermore, GAF have procured soft skin vehicles to this effect and that saw a convoy of vehicles with white paint tagged with UN on them headed to the Yundum Barracks on Wednesday 25 November 2020. The said vehicles will also be on displayed for the AAV.
“Please note that the AAV will be conducted from 2-4 December 2020 at Fajara Barracks and the Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Yundum Barracks respectively. Thus the general public especially residents around Bakau, Yundum and the other satellite villages are urged to not panic and should go about their normal daily routine.”
Ecowas commission president Kassi Brou jets into the country and holds talks with Dr Mamadou Tangara
Dr. Mamadou Tangara, on Monday morning received the President of Ecowas Commission Claude Kassi Brou, in his office in Banjul.
The foreign ministry in a statement signed by spokesman Saikou Ceesay said: “In welcoming the Ecowas President, Minister Tangara commended the regional bloc for the invaluable support and service the organisation rendered to The Gambia during this difficult time of the country’s history.
“Discussions between the two leaders centred on gains registered in the much–talked about Security Sector Reform, the drafted Constitution and the impact Covid -19 had on the Gambian economy.
“Both sides renewed their readiness to work concertedly in the consolidation of peace, stability and lasting democracy in The Gambia.”
Ya Kumba Jaiteh hits back again: Combat-ready MP says a lawmaker who openly took D10,000 bribe doesn’t have moral authority to question a ‘genuine’ loan scheme
Ya Kumba Jaiteh has fired back for the second time in as many hours as the war of words over her proposal rages.
On Monday, Busumbala MP Saikouba Jarju blasted the nominated MP for ‘misleading’ parliament and playing double standard. Jarju also blasted that he’s a representative and not a money maker.
Ms Jaiteh took to her Facebook for the second time on Monday, revving up the war of words along the way.
She said, without mentioning anyone by name: “A lawmaker who openly took a 10,000 dalasis bribe from the President does not have the moral authority to question a genuine loan scheme for not only members but staff of the Assembly! Miss me with the hyprocricy!
“He would probably be the first to apply. I will publish the list of all the applicants deh lol.”
On Sunday, Banjul South’s Touma Njai blasted the proposal saying it was embarrassing.
‘I’m a representative not a money maker’: Busumbala MP Saikouba joins huge war of words
A war of words has broken out among the country’s MPs over a hugely controversial 54 million dalasis loan scheme.
MP Ya Kumba Jaiteh last Thursday proposed a multi-million dalasis loan scheme that MPs could tap into to build their houses. MPs are now split over the scheme, although it was passed into legislation.
The MPs have since attacked each other with Banjul South’s Touma Njai branding the idea as embarrassing on Sunday. On Monday the chief proponent of the proposal Ya Kumba Jaiteh fired back that unethical is when someone cosies up to ministers in order to win contracts. She did not mention anyone by name.
Busumbala’s Saikouba Jarju who says he is against the scheme has now joined the row by blasting Ya Kumba Jaiteh for misleading the national assembly.
“May I clear the minds of my followers, supporters fans, sympathizers, relatives and critics that I am never a part to the most controversial 54 million loan approved by the national assembly led by Ya Kumba Jaiteh.
“In addition, the audio in circulation in the WhatsApp groups by Ya Kumba Jaiteh about President Barrow promised to build compounds for MPs is false and misleading. She has to the responsibility in misleading assembly for coming up with this scheme in a very bad time, which portrays betrayals to the people and a double standard in denying others and giving to ourselves [sic],” Jarju wrote on Monday.
Later on Monday, the Busumbala MP shared a comment by Kexx Sanneh along the statement: “I stand by that principle. Am a representative not a money maker.”
The battle for Kiang: Less than two months after UDP launched its office in Kwinella, President Barrow holds his launching in same village and tells people of Kiang to turn their back on being opposition
President Adama Barrow has told the people of Kiang not to allow anyone mislead them or take them backwards.
UDP last month launched its regional bureau in Kiang Kwinella where the party’s leader Ousainou Darboe revealed UDP has no competitor in LRR.
On Saturday, President Adama Barrow held the Kiang electricity launch in Kwinella telling the people not to let opposition beat their chest and say ‘Kiang is our home’.
“The fight is over. The government you installed is the government working for you and that’s the government that has brought you electricity today. But still people beat their chest and say Kiang is our home.
“So I don’t want that anymore, for opposition to beat their chest and say we’re Kiang. Your being opposition is over. You did it for 22 years and completed it.
“It’s your government that is now in power and whatever you want is what we will do for you. So let nobody mislead you in going forward and then go backwards,” the president said.
REVEALED: 1.1 billion dalasis was what was spent to realise electricity project involving Kiang
The electricity expansion project which has seen Kiang region finally get electricity was executed at a total cost of 22.5 million US dollars (over 1.1 billion dalasis), President Adama Barrow has said.
Kiang was the country’s last remaining regions without electricity but on Saturday, President Barrow turned on the region’s light following the completion of the power project for the region.
And speaking at an inauguration ceremony held in Kiang Kwinella, the President said ‘this Electricity Expansion Project has been successfully executed at a total cost of over Twenty-two Million US Dollars (US$22.5 Million)’.
“It is indeed a key milestone in the Government’s drive towards achieving universal access to electricity in The Gambia by 2025,” the president said.
“The implementation of this first phase started in 2017, and the project covers seventy-seven (77) communities. Fourteen (14) of these are in Kiang, and sixty-three (63) are in the West Coast Region.
“Altogether, the range targets five thousand (5000) meters in Kiang and over twenty thousand (20,000) meters in the West Coast Region,” the president said.
Yakumba Jaiteh fires back: Nominated MP says MPs going around begging fuel from ministers or cosying up to them in order to win contracts are what equal unethical
Yakumba Jaiteh has aimed a sly dig at fellow MPs who have criticised her loan scheme proposal for MPs.
Banjul South MP Touma Njai was quite frank on Sunday when she described the 54 million dalasis scheme as embarrassing.
“Seeing NAMS approve a GMD54M is not only embarrassing, but contradictory to the statements most held on to and tried holding the Government accountable for,” Touma Njai wrote Sunday.
The proposal came from Yakumba Jaiteh and writing on Facebook on Monday, Ms Jaiteh fired back that unethical is when one is stealing from taxpayers or when MPs cosy up to government ministers ‘so they can award you contracts’.
“Shameful = Abandoni[n]g the most important session of the NA to travel outside the country to attend regional meetings for 500 dollars per sitting payments!; nnethical = MPs begging Ministers for fuel! unethical = not objecting to a certain procedure for one thing and objecting the same procedure for another thing just to score a political point!” Ms Jaiteh said. She did not mention anyone by name.
Loans and National Assembly Members
Once again, the issue of loans to NAMs confirms that this country is yet to create system change by updating our laws in order to modernise our institutions and practices hence strengthening the good governance of this Republic as a democracy. For example, it is Section 95 of the Constitution that talks about the ‘remuneration and allowances’ of the members of the National Assembly. It says such remuneration and benefits shall be decided by an act of the National Assembly.
The only law that talks about the salaries, pensions and gratuity of NAMs is the ‘National Assembly Salaries and Pensions Act’. But this law does not mention loans to NAMs. Furthermore, this law is outdated because Schedule 1 of the law gives the exact figures for the salaries of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Majority and Minority leaders and Members.
Yet the figures given there are not the same amount as in the 2021 budget. This means the salaries of NAMs as set in the 2020 or 2021 budgets, and indeed any other budget, are illegal as far as this Act is concerned. Yet it is four years since we have an elected President and elected NAMs and none of who ever took time to address the issue of the salaries, pensions and benefits of NAMs.
Therefore, one would have thought that Hon. Ya Kumba Jaiteh and indeed each and every NAM would have concerned themselves with these issues in order to better situate our National Assembly as the apex accountability and governance institution in the country. Unfortunately, our NAMs did not only fail to do so but some would go further to propose and support millions of dalasi loans for themselves at a time when the country is highly indebted and painfully impoverished by bad governance since Independence to date.
I totally oppose the idea of loans to elected public officials such as the President, NAMs, Mayors, Chairpersons and Councillors, especially on the argument that appointed public servants do receive such incentives. Appointed public servants could spend their entire life in office as career public servants. But elected officials serve only on the basis of terms hence the focus should be to ensure that while serving their term they enjoy all necessary and ethical benefits except loans. This is to protect elected officials from being trapped by loans such that it might undermine their functions. Given the role of elected bodies as oversight, approving, law-making and accountability institutions, loans can undermine their independence, objectivity and integrity.
While it is true that all workers must have the necessary incentives to live decent lives, public office must not be seen and designed to serve oneself more than the ordinary citizen who are already reeling under poverty and deprivation due to the failure of elected and appointed public servants.
Thus, the incentives public officials obtain must be measured by being reasonable and justifiable lest citizens feel cheated and hold that public office is an avenue to serve only oneself! That would tantamount to corruption and abuse of office. It will make citizens lose trust and confidence in the Government and its officials hence pose a threat to national security.
This loan proposal from Hon. Jaiteh and sadly supported by the majority of NAMs is utterly unreasonable, unnecessary, unaffordable and unethical. This is because the need to build homes for NAMs is not a national priority and indeed not even a matter of personal urgency for the NAMs themselves.
No NAM is currently homeless while others have more than one home. But the majority of Gambian workers do not have personal homes while most homes lack basic structures and facilities. To now have NAMs request D54 million to build their own homes is to tell citizens that the National Assembly and politics in general is about self-aggrandizement.
The unreasonableness and unaffordability of this loan is the fact that the National Assembly election is on 9th April 2022 which is 16 months away. Hence on what basis could a public official contract a loan of nearly a million dalasi to pay within 16 months and still remain financially viable? None of the NAMs can guarantee that they will return to the Assembly in 2022, including Hon. Ya Kumba Jaiteh as a Nominated Member. Or is it that the plan is when NAMs take this loan they will not pay back? Would that not amount to defrauding the Gambian people?
Furthermore, the ticket to the National Assembly should not include the desire to build one’s home or build personal fortunes. That would be to reinforce the widely held believe that politics is about selfish interest, and not national interest. Thus, this proposal has the tendency to severely corrupt and weaken our National Assembly hence weaken the Republic as a whole as a failed State. With this proposal succeeding, the tendency for the next Assembly to also propose a loan for themselves would be hard to deny because a terrible precedence has already been set.
Compared to the rest of the Gambian populace, NAMs indeed enjoy huge salaries and benefits. One needs to only look at the budget to realise the many allowances that they carry such as car, house rent, transport and sitting allowances as well as per diems when they go on trek. Furthermore, NAMs are paid transport allowances when they go to workshops and other meetings. Hence the life of a NAM is a very privileged one in the Gambia. How on earth therefore could NAMs demand a loan of such magnitude at the very end of their term?
Even though this loan proposal was approved, I strongly hold that it is illegal and unethical and must not be implemented. Neither the Constitution nor the National Assembly Salaries and Pensions Act provide loans to NAMs. While NAMs have the power to review the budget estimates before them, the Constitution did not state that they can inject budget lines for personal loans. The budget is a national cake and there is no space for personal cake.
As a young NAM, Ya Kumba bears a sacred and historic duty to see to it that high values and standards are set in our governance institutions and practices. This is the legacy a young lawmaker should strive for and not to seek to succumb to that aged-old self-serving politics. Therefore, I demand Hon. Jaiteh to endeavour by all means to reverse this loan proposal with immediate effect. Her decision is utterly ill-advised and misplaced and needs to be reversed ASAP!
For The Gambia Our Homeland
House Speaker, justice minister and police chief all get petitioned as concerned citizens seek end to cyber bullying
Scores of Gambians on Saturday marched to call for action against cyber bullying in The Gambia.
Recent incidents of persons getting bullied or harassed online has led to Gambians concerned by the incidents mobilising and seeking an end to cyber bullying.
On Saturday, scores took part in a march on Kairaba Avenue to ask stakeholders to perfect measures against the act.
“While we recognise that the internet is indeed an indispensable tool for the promotion of individual, community and national development in all their facets, we deplore the use of the internet and social media as weapons to harm the rights, dignity and security of individuals,” a petition read at the march event said.
The marchers put the speaker of the National Assembly top of their list of ‘stakeholders’ they are asking to take action. The minister of justice, minister of interior, minister of information and communication infrastructure, minister of basic and secondary education, minister of higher education, Inspector General of police and PURA DG have all been petitioned.
“We have noticed over the recent period that certain individuals for various ulterior reasons use the internet through social media and these platforms to launch attacks on other people behind fake profiles.
“These crimes are usually in the form of sharing harmful images of the victims as well as the use of degrading words and descriptions. These attacks have been noted to be clearly directed at girls and women.
“We are concerned that as much as citizens have a right to freedom of expression and we need to ensure that the democratic space remains open and free. However, it is not the right of anyone to defame the name, reputation, character and image of another person through any means or channels of communication, either online or offline,” the marchers said.
According to the marchers, promiment in their list of demands is for cyber bullying to be criminalised.
“We wish to therefore asked the mentioned stakeholders for the following measures to curb online bullying: criminalise cyber bullying and effectively enforce the provision,” the marchers said.
The concerned citizens also want law enforcement officers to be equippe with the knowledge and skills and their agencies be provided with the requisite tools to “detect, investigate and prosecute cyber bullying”.
President Barrow says his government turned around the electricity fortunes of GB area after finding it in a nightmare state
President Adama Barrow has said electricity in Greater Banjul area was a nightmare three years ago.
The country’s electricity was in a sorry state when President Barrow took office nearly four years ago.
“You will recall that barely three years ago, electricity supply was a nightmare in the Greater Banjul Area, and did not exist at all in most parts of the country,” President Barrow looking back on those difficult years said while presiding over the inauguration of the Kiang electricity project.
The president then said: “Today, we are able to provide a reliable supply of electricity in most parts of the Greater Banjul Area and in many other areas of the country.”