By Lamin Njie

A 46-year-old woman was yanked from her house in Macumbaya and put in a bus where she waited for hours before being taken to Kololi and stripped.

Therese Gomez ran into trouble when ritualists stormed her town in 2009 as part of a Yahya Jammeh-sanctioned nationwide witch-hunt.

Therese was with her daughter who had newly given birth when the weirdly dressed witch doctors arrived and asked her to come with them, without telling her why she was being arrested. She was held by her hand and placed in a bus.

Therese told the TRRC today she had no idea a campaign aimed at identifying witches was going on.

Therese said: “He was dressed in red costume which had mirror all over. He held me by my hand and asked me to come with him. I was taken to a bus which I was asked to board.”

Macumbaya is a village in Kombo North and it is one of the many communities that Jammeh-sponsored witch doctors raided in 2009. The witch doctors came to the village with a group of young boys and girls who were singing and dancing as the hunt for witches unravelled – and Therese was one of dozens who luck had given its back to.

“I found other people who were also asked to board the bus.

“We were later taken to Kololi I believe. They asked us to form a queue and each was given [a concoction] to drink. They also stripped and bathed us,” Therese said.

President Adama Barrow will take part in at least 44 meetings during a nationwide tour which will begin next week, State House said today.

President Barrow will next week start a tour of the country that will span 19 days – a tour that is coming a few weeks before a three-years understanding that in 2016 sealed his State House fate expires. President Barrow has however said he will not step down, a move that has now triggered controversy.

A statement by State House today said “the president is expected to chair over 44 public meetings, and spot visits to development projects relating to agriculture, education, health care, youth entrepreneurship throughout the country.”

The Amie Bojang Sissoho-signed statement added: “The president will use the opportunity to reiterate his call for unity, social cohesion, and harmony in the pursuit of peace, security and socio-economic and political progress of the country. He will also engage with the members of the public on the government’s development blueprint – the National Development Plan, particularly the President’s priority areas.

“For the first part of the tour, the presidential delegation will hold meetings in North Bank Region and Central River Region-North, while the rest of Week One will be spent in the Upper River Region.

“Over the weekend, the delegation will stop in parts of the CRR South and Lower River Region. The final leg of the tour will take place in the West Coast Region, Kanifing Municipality, and the Greater Banjul Area with a mega meeting in the City of Banjul.”

By Lamin Njie

A 21-year-old man on Wednesday broke sports betting record in The Gambia after he won 1.3 million dalasis at Bwinners, a sports betting company.

Bwinners is one of the top sports betting companies in The Gambia employing nearly 200 Gambians.

A cheque of D1,374,000 was presented to 21-year-old Aziz Mbaye at a ceremony held at Bwinners in Tallinding today.

“It’s luck. This is the third year I am playing and God has made me a winner. I am really in a state of shock and calling on everyone to keep trying their luck so that everyone can win,” an elated Aziz said at the event, as he became the country’s newest youngest millionaire.

Fatoumata Jaiteh who works for Bwinners while congratulating the young man said Aziz has been a loyal customer.

She then added: “I call on you all to continue trying your chance, just D20, you can win all this.”

By Omar Wally and Adama Makasuba

Ensa ‘Jesus’ Badjie wept today as he revealed former President Yahya Jammeh is the person behind his 2010 arrest and jailing.

The former police chief was arrested in 2010 on bogus charges of drug trafficking, corruption and theft. He was later jailed for 10 years.

Mr Badjie appeared before the TRRC today but the 49-year-old could not hold back tears as he called out former President Yahya Jammeh over his ordeal.

Mr Badjie said: “It was Yahya Jammeh who was behind my arrest, detention and jail[ing] because anytime you advise him, he takes it differently and he thinks that you want to challenge him.”

The former IGP who was served as police chief for three years described his arrest as wrong because ‘I was not dismissed, I was not charged and I was not cautioned.’

“I was called by former defense minister Antuman Saho who informed me Pa Mbye went to Jammeh and told him that senior police and army officers are engaged in peddling drug with Silah-ba Samateh,” Badjie told the TRRC.

Badjie later handed himself to the NIA where he was handcuffed and tortured.

“I was bleeding, I had wounds on my mouth and hands. They tortured me to confess. The following day, I was taken to NIA and under a mango tree, I signed my dismissal,” the former police chief said.

By Lamin Njie

President Adama Barrow’s aides will be putting pressure on him to stay on as president because it it paves the way for them to continue living a good life, Dr Ismaila Ceesay has said.

President Barrow is facing mounting pressure to resign in line with a three-year transitional term pledge but he is now of a mind to be in office for five years.

University don Dr Ismaila Ceesay told The Fatu Network in an exclusive interview the president wants to stay in office because of ‘sweetness of power.’

“When he came to power, he realised the privileges and protocols but there are other factors. People around him, they knew that; ‘our only chance of making it [in terms of] privileges is when President Barrow is in power, if he’s gone, our privileges are gone.’ So they will be putting pressure on him,” Dr Ceesay said.

The top political scientist said his view that President Barrow is not fit for the job of president hasn’t changed.

“My view on the way the president is running this country hasn’t changed. I’m still seeing the same amateurish way of running the affairs of this country,” Dr Ceesay said.

By Lamin Njie

UDP Busumbala leaders have accused the constituency’s national assembly member Saikouba Jarju of indifference towards Busumbala’s development.

Animosity and mistrust between Saikouba Jarju and UDP leaders in Busumbala is growing over the lawmaker’s open romance with President Adama Barrow.

Mr Jarju is suspected of being a member of Barrow Youth Movement and has been accused of pushing President Barrow’s political agenda in Busumbala, a move UDP leaders in the town say runs counter to the party’s interest.

Kemo Ceesay the town’s UDP chairman spoke at a news conference today saying while Mr Jarju claims to be a member of UDP, his actions prove otherwise.

“For us at the constituency level, we are seeing him as UDP. He is not participating in UDP activities and not giving us any feedback from the national assembly,” Mr Ceesay said of Jarju who has UDP to thank for his lawmaker job after claiming his stake under the party’s ticket at the 2017 national assembly elections.

The UDP Busumbala constituency leaders say if they do not succeed in bringing him back to line, they will petition the party’s national leadership.

Saikouba Jarju could not be immediately reached for comment.

By Adama Makasuba

The first person to be pinned during the course of former President Yahya Jammeh’s 2009 brutal witch hunt exercise has said a packs of condom incident could have led to his victimisation.

Mustapha Ceesay, a former police officer was accused of being a sorcerer in 2009 after he refused to accept packs of condom that were being distributed freely to police officers who were set to be deployed to Kanilai, former President Yahya Jammeh’s hometown.

Mr Ceesay testified before the TRRC on Tuesday saying he found the incident which happened in 2005 ‘very insulting for the morale of security forces’.

Ceesay was later punished and barred from going to Kanilai – and five years later became the first person to be branded a witch by a band of witch doctors as part of a witch-hunt campaign that was authorised by Jammeh.

Mr Ceesay told the TRRC: “I came to understand that President Jammeh brought these witch doctors from Guinea Conakry after the death of his aunt and two of his protocol officers – Musa Jammeh and Tumbul Tamba.”

By Adama Makasuba

A band of witch-doctors cut the throat of a cock during a ceremony where senior police officers were asked to pledge their allegiance to then-president Yahya Jammeh, it has been revealed.

In 2009, former President Jammeh shocked the nation by lauching a campaign that targeted people who were believed to be witches. Witch-doctors numbering six raided communities with the help of soldiers armed with AK47 rifles and those who were cuaght were pressurized to confess to murders by sorcery.

Ken Mendy, a policeman on Monday detailed how the so-called witch doctors forced senior police officers at the police headquarters in Banjul to pledge their allegiance to former President Yahya Jammeh by standing over sacrificial pit of a cock under a palm tree.

“These witch hunters were having a cock and the cock was slaughtered under a palm tree and all the people paraded were taken to this palm tree to swear their allegiance to the president and the IGP was the one leading this process,” Mr Mendy told the TRRC.

Another police officer Abdou Colley has also told the TRRC the witch doctors raided offices in their search for witches.

The men were dressed in red costume and always carried mirrors, horns and cow tails as they forced those they believe to be witches drink concoctions.

Pneumonia claimed the lives of more than 800,000 children under the age of five last year, or one child every 39 seconds, according to a new analysis.

Most deaths occurred among children under the age of two, and almost 153,000 within the first month of life.

Sounding the alarm about this forgotten epidemic, six leading health and children’s organisations have launched an appeal for global action.

In January the group will host world leaders at the Global Forum on Childhood Pneumonia in Spain.

Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF, said: “Every day, nearly 2,200 children under the age of five die from pneumonia, a curable and mostly preventable disease. Strong global commitment and increased investments are critical to the fight against this disease. Only through cost-effective protective, preventative and treatment interventions delivered to where children are will we be able to truly save millions of lives.”

Pneumonia is caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi, and leaves children fighting for breath as their lungs fill with pus and fluid.

More children under the age of five died from the disease in 2018 than from any other. 437,000 children under five died due to diarrhoea and 272,000 to malaria.

Kevin Watkins, Chief Executive of Save the Children, said: “This is a forgotten global epidemic that demands an urgent international response. Millions of children are dying for want of vaccines, affordable antibiotics, and routine oxygen treatment. The pneumonia crisis is a symptom of neglect and indefensible inequalities in access to health care.”

Just five countries were responsible for more than half of child pneumonia deaths: Nigeria (162,000), India (127,000), Pakistan (58,000), the Democratic Republic of Congo (40,000) and Ethiopia (32,000).

Children with immune systems weakened by other infections like HIV or by malnutrition, and those living in areas with high levels of air pollution and unsafe water, are at far greater risk.

The disease can be prevented with vaccines, and easily treated with low-cost antibiotics if properly diagnosed.

But tens of millions of children are still going unvaccinated – and one in three with symptoms do not receive essential medical care.

Children with severe cases of pneumonia may also require oxygen treatment, which is rarely available in the poorest countries to the children who need it.

Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said: “The fact that this preventable, treatable and easily diagnosed disease is still the world’s biggest killer of young children is frankly shocking. We have made strong progress over the last decade, with millions of children in the world’s poorest countries now receiving the lifesaving pneumococcal vaccine. Thanks largely to Gavi’s support, pneumococcal vaccine coverage in low-income countries is now higher than the global average, but we still have work to do to ensure every child has access to this lifesaver.”

Funding available to tackle pneumonia lags far behind other diseases. Only 3% of current global infectious disease research spending is allocated to pneumonia, despite the disease causing 15% of deaths in children under the age of five.

Leith Greenslade, Coordinator of Every Breath Counts, said: “For decades the leading killer of children has been a neglected disease and the world’s most vulnerable children have paid the price. It’s time for governments, UN and multilateral agencies, companies and NGOs to join forces to fight pneumonia and protect these children.”

Meanwhile the organisations in a joint call to action urged governments in the worst-affected countries to develop and implement pneumonia control strategies to reduce child pneumonia deaths; and to improve access to primary health care as part of a wider strategy for universal health coverage.

They also called on richer countries, international donors and private sector companies to boost immunisation coverage by reducing the cost of key vaccines and ensuring the successful replenishment of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and to increase funding for research and innovation to tackle pneumonia.

By Lamin Njie

Yankuba Touray’s lawyers have lost a bid that seeks to have Dr Baba Galleh Jallow arrested and dragged to court.

Lawyers for the embattled former AFPRC junta stalwart who is standing trial for murdering former finance minister Ousman Koro Ceesay last week applied for a bench warrant against Dr Baba Galleh Jallow, the executive secretary of TRRC for allegedly refusing to attend a court session.

Judge Ebrima Jaiteh on Monday dismissed the application saying the prosecution had apprised the high court of a TRRC representative’s attendance. The judge while dismissing the application also argued Dr Jallow was not a witness in the trial.

Yankuba Touray faces life behind bars for the alleged bludgeoning of former finance minister Ousman Koro Ceesay. The incident allegedly happened in Mr Touray’s house in Kololi in June 1995.

The trial will resume next week with the former local government minister’s former bodyguard expected to be quizzed by defence lawyers.

By Lamin Njie

President Adama Barrow should resign in December and hand power to someone who is not a politician to preside until 2021 and organise elections, Dr Ismaila Ceesay has said.

The Gambia’s political future is a crossroads as President Barrow is facing strong opposition over his plan to stay in power until 2021. Mr Barrow had previously pledged to be in office for only three years but he has now changed his mind, a move that has sparked a bitter political row.

UDP and PDOIS are leading the calls for Mr Barrow to step down in December while pressure group Three Years Jotna has threatened to take to the streets if Mr Barrow fails to keep his promise.

Dr Ismaila Ceesay today told The Fatu Network The Gambia is in a “dilemma which if we don’t really treat carefully will be to the disadvantage of this country and for future generations.”

The top political scientist argued: “For thirty, we’d one government with one president. Subsequently, he was overthrown. Twenty-years one party with one president. So the norm in terms of our politics and democracy was self-perpetuating rule, leaders who overstay in power and they are forced out. 2016 came [and] that was a big opportunity for The Gambia. That for the first time in the history of this country we were able to remove a sitting president through the ballot box. It means that we have an opportunity to reset our democratic culture from self-perpetuating rule to something else.

“The coalition MOU was handy, in the sense that it wants to reset the political norm to a system where we have multi-party competitive democracy where leaders don’t stay too long in power. That is why they came up with certain general principles, key among which was what; a person who is elected as flagbearer will oversee a three-year transition and will resign and conduct elections that he will not contest because he will have the advantage of incumbency, that anybody who wins will start the building of this nation. That has failed.

“If Barrow refuses to resign after three years, it is setting a bad precedent. It will mean we have leaders who make promises and can’t keep promises. It is bad for our democracy, it will undo everything that we fought for. However, if he is forced out through a popular uprising, it is also setting a very bad precedent. It will mean for a very long time it will be difficult for a president to finish his term in this country.

“So now, what do we do as a country? Let us forget about our personal interest and put the interest of the country first. One thing that can be done which will solve all these problems is for President Barrow to resign. But before he resigns, he appoints a reformist technocratic vice president who will oversee the rest of the transition period, implement the rest of the reforms, oversees a successful constitutional review referundum, organises elections, all these political leaders, the Hamat Bahs, let them all be removed from cabinet. This reformist vice president will become the president and can appoint a reformist technocratic cabinet to do the work. The politicians, Barrow can go and form his political party and come back in 2021, let everybody go and do their politics and leave these technocrats to do the rest of the two-year transition.”

By Jaka Ceesay Jaiteh

GMC leader Mai Ahmad Fatty has said it is not realistic for presidential elections to be held this year.

The 2016 coalition pact demands that President Adama Barrow resign at the end of three-year term. That term will expire next month and already some coalition political parties have called on Mr Barrow to step down and fresh elections to be called.

GMC leader Mai Ahmad Fatty returned to the country from a tour of four Europe nations, a tour he used to interact with supporters of the red party.

Speaking to journalists at the airport on the idea of holding presidential elections next month, Mr Fatty insisted: “For GMC, we have made it very clear. For us [GMC], for us to have elections in 2019 is not realistic. Why is it not realistic? One, we have the same constitution that Jammeh left with us and this constitution is heavily skewed in favour of the incumbent.

“Simply majority, you are gone through. And it is now the prevailing trend across the world in the develop world and in developing countries to have absolute majority. Now, the current constitution does not cater for that.

“Secondly, we need to change the electoral laws and the system of registration. There are too many distortions in our elections laws and unless we sanitise our elections laws, we will have something similar to what we have with Jammeh.”

By Adama Makasuba

The TRRC on Monday resumed its public hearings with a police officer becoming the first Gambian to testify on former President Yahya Jammeh’s so-called 2009 witch-hunt.

In 2009, former President Jammeh shocked the world by hiring a band of witch doctors to raid communities for witches – a six-man group of witch-doctors who were always accompanied by soldiers armed with AK47 rifles. The exercise targeted poor, elderly farmers who were often pressurized to confess to murders by sorcery. The witch-hunt was also conducted in some government offices in Banjul.

The TRRC will dedicate its 10th session to an event which caused the death of scores while others who were targeted are still reeling from the beating and other forms of torture.

Abdou Colley, a 61-year-old policeman on Monday appeared before the TRRC detailing how former President Yahya Jammeh’s band of witch doctors raided offices in their search for witches.

The so-called witch doctors were dressed in red costume and always carried mirrors, horns and cow tails as they forced those they believe to be witches drink concoctions.

“In the morning between 10 and 11am some people came there and they called themselves marabouts, they wore a red attires, having horns, and cow tails, if you are not brave you will ran away,” Mr. Kolley, a police chief disciplinary officer, told TRRC.

He added: “Any office we go to, they have mirrors and horns. They came with military officers in both military uniforms and in mufti. They will ask you to stand up and they would search. If they don’t see anything they would leave but if they see anything they would ask you to go with them. They came to my office and I told them to search. They did and saw nothing.”

By Lamin Njie

The Gambia on Monday sued Myanmar over alleged genocidal actions against the Rohingya.

The Rohingya, a Muslim minority that lives in Myanmar are viewed in the Southeast Asian nation as illegal immigrants and have been facing persecution on a massive scale.

Al Jazeera reported last week a brutal army campaign in August 2017 forced more than 740,000 members of the mostly-Muslim minority to flee Myanmar’s Rakhine state, most seeking refuge in overcrowded camps across the border in Bangladesh. During its crackdown, which was launched in response to attacks by an armed group, the military carried out mass killings and gang rapes with “genocidal intent”, Al Jazeera said quoting United Nations-mandated investigators. At least 600,000 Rohingya who now remain in Myanmar are now facing a serious risk of genocide, the officials added.

The Gambia on Monday became the first country to square up to Myanmar by filing before the International Court of Justice in The Hague a lawsuit alleging that “the Republic of the Union of Myanmar has violated its obligations under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide for its genocidal actions against the Rohingya people, a Muslim minority that lives in Myanmar.”

A statement from the Ministry of Justice said: “Genocide is a crime under international law, and all States have an obligation to prevent, to punish, and to not commit genocide. Myanmar has failed in adhering to its obligations on all counts in its brutal treatment of the Rohingya, who have been subjected to wanton acts of violence and malicious degradation with the specific intent of State actors to destroy the Rohingya as a group.

“The Gambia has stepped forward, on behalf of the 57 Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and with the mandate of the Organization, to hold Myanmar accountable for its genocidal crimes against the Rohingya. This action asks the ICJ to adjudge and declare Myanmar to have violated its obligations under the Genocide Convention, to order Myanmar to cease and desist from its genocidal acts, to punish the perpetrators, and to provide reparations for the Rohingya victims.

“The Gambia has also asked the ICJ to impose Provisional Measures, as a matter of extreme urgency, to protect the Rohingya against further harm during the pendency of this case by ordering Myanmar to stop all of its genocidal conduct immediately.
“The Gambia calls on the international community to support its legal effort, and to redouble all diplomatic and political efforts to cause Myanmar to stop, and never to repeat, its genocide against the Rohingya, and to assist in efforts to ensure justice and accountability for the crimes committed against them.

“The Agent for The Gambia before the ICJ in this case, and head of its legal team, is H.E. Abubacarr Marie Tambadou, Attorney General and Minister of Justice of The Gambia. The Gambia has retained the services of Foley Hoag LLP, an international law firm with many years of experience representing States before the ICJ, as its counsel. The Gambia will also be represented by Professor Philippe Sands, of University College London, and Professor Payam Akhavan, of McGill University.”

By Lamin Njie

Halifa Sallah has said an empty brain cannot change a country, warning that PDOIS doesn’t want supporters who insult.

“A person who insults has no message. An empty brain cannot change a country. We don’t want PDOIS supporerts who insult. If you do, you are not our supporter, go and find another party,” Mr Sallah said at Paradise Suites Hotel today during the launch of Gonga (Truth), a magazine publication by People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism that seeks to enlighten Gambians on issues affecting their lives.

At the event, Mr Sallah spoke for nearly two hours starting off by telling the gathering The Gambia is in ‘crisis and it’s a crisis of mindset.’

“We have a nation but we do not agree on which path to take to build a nation where all of us will call our homeland,” Mr Sallah said.

The PDOIS leader added: “Who are we, this is what we are here today to define. What do we own, that is what we are here to identify. What should be our duty, that is what we are here to determine.

“We must take charge of our destiny. But we cannot take charge of our destiny until we know who we are. The Gonga aims to help us to understand who we are.”

Malta’s armed forces have started cooperating with Libya’s coastguard to turn back migrant boats heading into Malta’s search and rescue zone, a newspaper reported on Sunday, citing a secret government deal.

The government declined to comment directly on the report in the Sunday Times of Malta, but told Reuters the Mediterranean state had been working with the Libyan coastguard for many years and always operated within the law.

Under the terms of the deal, when a migrant boat is spotted sailing toward Malta, the island’s armed forces seek the intervention of the Libyan coastguard to intercept them before they enter Malta’s territorial waters, the paper said.

Non-governmental organizations have denounced previous deals by which Italy has directed the Libyan coastguard to pick up migrant boats in Libyan territorial waters, saying refugees face torture and abuse in the lawless north African country.

The Malta deal appears to go a step further by encouraging the Libyan coastguard to intervene beyond its own coastal waters, which extend some 22.2 km (14 miles) from its shore, and into the broad search-and-rescue zone operated by Malta.

“Search and rescue areas are not areas where the coastal state exercises sovereignty or has jurisdiction, but areas forming part of high seas where foreign military assets have every right to investigate any illegal activity departing from their coast,” the Maltese government said.

Malta has taken in several hundred migrants in recent months, but almost always from charity rescue ships that had picked them up in the central Mediterranean. There have been few reports of migrant boats reaching the island autonomously.

In a sign of growing cooperation between Valletta and the Tripoli-based Libyan government, Malta seized in September a shipment of unofficial Libyan currency believed to have been destined for rebel military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

Two containers packed full of the recently introduced currency, printed in Russia, were discovered when the ship carrying the money stopped in Malta, local media reported earlier this month.

The Customs Department did not announce the find at the time and has made no subsequent comment on the operation. (Reuters)

By Adama Makasuba

President Adama Barrow has laid into his critics calling them hypocrites who are desperately making negatively comments about his presidency just because of their interest in the country’s top job.

President Barrow spoke on Friday, two days after United Democratic Party stunned the nation by calling on him to honour the coalition’s gentleman pact which says he should step down in December.

Mr Barrow while meeting with a Sheriff delegation at State House, led by Sheikh Samsideen Hydara, said: “They criticise me saying, ‘he is a coward, he doesn’t talk’. It is all politics because for somebody who had campaigned, travelled the length and breadth of the country and succeeded, if you say that person doesn’t talk, that’s a lie, it is all hypocrisy.”

President Barrow urged the Sheriff family to continue praying for the country’s peace and progress.

“I want you to pray for my tour that will start on the 18th of this month where I will tell the country about my five years National Development Plan which will benefit everyone and other plans I have for them,” Mr Barrow said.

According to President Barrow, it could never be true to call him a coward given that he contested against Yahya Jammeh, a man who many Gambians thought suicidal to square up to.

“Someone who was selected a candidate to contest with Yahya Jammeh, if you say that person is a coward, that will be a lie,” Mr Barrow added.

By Momodou Justice Darboe

Karpowership on Wednesday handed over fishing gears to the fisher-folks in Banjul as part of the company’s contribution towards improving the country’s artisanal fisheries sub-sector.

Karpowership is a floating vessel active in the supply of electricity in some countries in the Middle-East, Asia and Africa and the power production outfit prides itself in investing in the socio-economic development of countries in which they operate.

And in keeping with this tradition, Karpowership yesterday gave, among others, life jackets, floaters, ropes and nets to the fishermen and women of Banjul in the hope the materials would help improve the quality of life for them.

Artisanal fisheries sub-sector is a significant source of employment and household nutrition and Karpowership believed that the items it donated the fishermen will have ripple effects.

“We have no doubt that these items that we are presenting here today will benefit the beneficiaries immensely and that the benefits will extend to the general population as the gesture would create quite a positive impact on the fishing industry,’’ said Mr. Yankuba Mambury, Country Director of Karpowership during a presentation ceremony held at the Banjul beach.

He stated that Karpowership is resolute in its involvement in social projects for improved wellbeing of the local people.

‘’With our operations in The Gambia, the company will continue to engage in social responsibility projects that will help with the growth of the local people as well as providing educational tools. As a strategic partner, Karpowership is committed to Gambia’s development and will continue to provide all Gambians sustainable, reliable and affordable electricity for many more years to come,’’ he added.

According to Karpowership country boss, the company has doled out hundreds of bags of rice and sugar to the needy in the past two Ramadans, Tobaski rams and that it had also given support to the NEA for last year and this year’s International Coastal Cleanup Day as well as the rehabilitation of a unit of the Children’s Wing of Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital in Banjul.

“Thanks to our intervention, we have been able to make available water supply to the unit,’’ he enthused.

Meanwhile speaking on behalf the beneficiaries, Abdoulie Ibra Bah acknowledged the contributions that Karpowership has made and continues to render to various areas of national development endeavours.

He said it was both heartwarming and gratifying to receive support from the company, adding it was timely, necessary and will give them an uplift in their fishing activities. Mr. Bah then gave an assurance that the materials would be purposefully utilized.

The handing over ceremony was attended by officials of Karpowership and some members of the Banjul fishing community.

By Adama Makasuba

National Assembly Member for Basse on Thursday announced his full support for President Adama Barrow, a day after UDP called on the Gambian leader to respect a gentleman pact that says he should step down in December.

Muhammed Magassy at a news conference on Kairaba Avenue said, “I have no other option, I shouldn’t even have any other option rather than to give my full support to His Excellency Adama Barrow.”

Flanked to his right by fellow URR lawmaker Billay G Tunkara, Magassy argued President Barrow “is my president and he is the one that I am following.”

Magassy was first elected to the National Assembly in 2011 running as an independent candidate and in 2016 joined the coalition as an independent stakeholder who was instrumental in canvassing support for the coalition in Basse Constituency in the 1 December 2016 presidential elections which President Barrow won.

According to Magassy, Barrow was unanimously viewed as the man who can free and unite Gambians and bring development to the country and that President Barrow should serve for five years.

The lawmaker said he would continue to support Barrow through advocacy and sensitization and ‘by giving support to government bills that are good for this country so that they are passed in the parliament.’