By: Dawda Baldeh
The opposition Gambia Democratic Party (GDC) Campaign Manager MC Cham Junior has described the commission of inquiry instituted by President Adama Barrow to investigate local government councils as a tactic to dissolve the councils ahead of the local government elections.
“If you know that you don’t have any candidate who can win the Mayoral or Chairman Election, you should try it in the right way but not set up a commission just to destroy the councils.
“They wanted to dissolve the councils and the Supreme Court said the government has no power to dissolve the councils three months before elections. Now they want to do it through the commission,” he reacted.
MC Cham noted that if the president is interested in fighting corruption he should institute a commission to investigate all government institutions.
“We all know the mayors and chairmen do not sign cheques and those that are responsible are employed by the government.
They are saying that KMC is corrupt but they cannot prove their claims. If there is fraud in the council why was the government silent about it? They should have acted on their mandate to investigate since but not wait until two months before elections,” he argued.
According to him, the only reported fraud within KMC was the issue involving its former CEO which was also captured in the audit report.
He doubts the outcome of the commission, saying several commissions were set up but nothing was implemented.
Speaking further MC Cham Jr asked why the government didn’t investigate other scandals in the country involving several institutions.
“If the president is ready to end/fight corruption in the country, everyone knows MC Cham Jr is always fighting corruption. But where is the Anti-corruption bill? Is the government pushing for the bill to be effective?
“Where is the commission set [up] to investigate D148m Covid-19 funds? Haruna Jatta was shut to dead in Foni but no commission was set to investigate his death.
The D168m Securiport scandal is there, [was there] any commission set to investigate it? GamPetrol scandal, how many millions are missing but there is no commission? How can the government convince the citizens that they want to end corruption.”
He noted that many commissions were set up in the country and their outcome remains unimplemented, claiming that government punishes the few and frees the once they like in any commission.
“I hate injustice and abuse of power,” he added.
Subsequently, MC Cham also responded to Matarr Saine and Dabah Malick who in an interview with Star FM asked MC Cham to campaign for his party (GDC) and stop campaigning for others.
“They wanted me to join NPP and I refused. So, they are now attacking me. We should stop politics of personal interest and put the interest of the country first. They should have waited until GDC select a candidate to contest in the KMC to see where I will stand.
“I hate the politic of personal attack because it won’t take us anywhere,” he emphasized.
