By Seedy Jobe
Hakeem Touray, national coordinator of GALA, has warned that his organization will take further action if President Adama Barrow fails to respond to the National Assembly’s special select committee report on the sale of former President Yahya Jammeh’s assets by October 30.
Speaking on Kerr Fatou’s weekly current affairs program, The Grand Bantaba, Mr. Touray said GALA was determined to prevent the report from suffering the same fate as previous commission findings that, he argued, have remained unimplemented despite substantial public expenditure.
“We don’t want what happened to other reports to happen to this one” Mr. Touray said in substance, emphasizing the group’s commitment to securing government action.
He said GALA had formally written to President Barrow, giving him until October 30 to act on the report. The organization also set an October 15 deadline for the National Assembly to follow up on its findings and demand a response from the executive.
Mr. Touray rejected suggestions that GALA’s advocacy was limited to public statements and ultimatums, saying the organization had engaged lawmakers on several occasions and remained willing to hold further discussions.
He said GALA had asked the National Assembly to invite its representatives for another meeting to jointly review the report and discuss the steps needed to ensure accountability.
However, he criticized lawmakers for what he described as their apparent lack of urgency since submitting the report to the president in April.
Mr. Touray questioned why the National Assembly had not publicly demanded an update from the president on the report’s status, arguing that lawmakers had effectively abandoned their responsibility after completing their investigation.
He urged the Assembly to demonstrate that its work was meaningful by formally requesting presidential action before the October 15 deadline, warning that GALA would pursue further engagement with lawmakers if they failed to respond.
Turning to President Barrow, Mr. Touray argued that the October 30 deadline was already generous and that a government committed to accountability should not require such an extended period to address matters of national concern.
He expressed concern that the findings could join those of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), the Janneh Commission and the Local Government Commission of Inquiry, whose recommendations he said had yet to receive adequate government action.
According to Mr. Touray, the repeated establishment of commissions and parliamentary investigations without meaningful implementation represents a misuse of public resources.
He argued that taxpayers should not be expected to finance costly investigations only for their findings and recommendations to be left unaddressed.
Mr. Touray insisted that securing action on the Jammeh assets report remained a central priority for GALA and pledged that the organization would continue pressing the government until the matter was resolved.
Asked what GALA would do if President Barrow ignored the October 30 deadline, Mr. Touray warned that the organization would respond but stopped short of announcing a street demonstration.
“If he does not come out, we will come out,” he said.
He explained that GALA had several options available and that any decision on its next course of action would be made at the appropriate time, stressing that street protests were not the only means of holding the government accountable.
Mr. Touray also questioned the president’s commitment to public accountability, arguing that continued silence on the report would send a troubling message to Gambians, particularly from a leader seeking another 15 years in office.
His remarks underscore mounting pressure on the Barrow administration to address the parliamentary findings concerning the disposal of assets belonging to the former president and to demonstrate that investigations funded by taxpayers can produce meaningful accountability.
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