By: Dawda Baldeh
Musa Ousainou Yali Bachilly, the leader of the opposition Gambia Action Party (GAP), has called on the government to regulate the prices of food commodities ahead of Ramadan to avoid intimidation of customers with self-imposed prices.
“This year’s Ramadan will be challenging financially. Other factors that surround our market prices. Traders are continuously taking advantage by ripping off people with throat-cut prices and the Ministry of Trade is looking without introducing fixed price regulations,” he said.
According to the GAP leader, all the Gambian market traders are continuously and brutally abusive and introduce their market prices without sympathy whilst the government is naively busy in support of corruption.
“A GAP-led government will curb corruption and poverty reduction as well as overstretched and demoralized public services including the economic downturn and price regulations,” he asserted.
He noted that GAP-led government culprits will be brought to book as an implementation of self-market prices will be criminalized in The Gambia with zero tolerance.
“Survival should not be ignored because of poverty, and one cannot afford to die due to the government’s inability to implement workable policies for all the citizens.
“In other countries with responsible governments, prices of basic commodities are being prioritized to prevent hunger strikes amongst the people, but in the Gambia, the people’s representatives are keeping quiet whilst ordinary Gambians continue to languish in confusion,” he emphasized.
Speaking further, the opposition leader called on the National Assembly members as direct representatives of the people to work together with the Ministry of Trade and implement price fixing with immediate effect.
“We are bonded by a sense of humour and commonalities. When survival becomes difficult in a country, it triggers political and social instability.
We take this opportunity to call for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the Gambia ahead of local government elections and also wish the entire Muslim family a blissful month of Ramadan with joy and rewards,” he stressed.
