The vice president of the Gambia, Fatoumata Jallow Tambjang, has issued a statement explaining the readiness of the Government in ensuring peoples’ rights to protest is protected.
A group of Gambian youths calling themselves ‘enough is enough’ have applied for a permit to protest against the recent killing of three protesters at Faraba.
The youths who had a meeting with the vice president were given a police permit on Saturday to hold their rally against “police brutality” at Westfield at 3pm Sunday.
“It is important to state that the importance of a constitutional right to demonstrate is not lost on President Adama Barrow’s government because we have fought for many years to end the 22 year’s autocratic rule and reclaim civil liberties; in strategic partnerships will patriotic stakeholders, including the present leaders of the #DafaDoy movement. This government is open to dialogue and partnerships with stakeholders in the supreme interest of rebuilding a peaceful, humanly secured and democratic country,” the VP said on Sunday.
“After the President Adama Barrow’s government initiated long dialogue with the #DafaDoy Movement and some cabinet Ministers, key security service chiefs, Chair of Islamic council, civil society organizations and the media, concerning the necessity for the movement to follow due legal process to protest peacefully.
“This was to enable government to provide them with security for their planned demonstration today, the #DafaDoy movement applied and was granted a permit.
“The government is convinced that the leaders of the protest would uphold the conditions of the permit. The government took advantage of the dialogue to encourage the leaders to use their influence to partner with government in its efforts to rebuild our country for the common good after a painful 22 years of autocratic rule and under development, which ended only 18 months ago.”
The Gambia government has currently arrested five police officers over the killings and an independent inquiry was also launched.