By Kaddijatou Jawo
The National Assembly Tuesday summoned the vice President Aja Fatoumatta Jallow-Tambajang over Monday’s incident in Faraba which left two people dead and dozens wounded.
Speaking to journalists shortly after a closed door meeting with the law-makers, VP Tambajang said the meeting was very fruitful and that investigations are being launched to look into the radical causes of the situation in Faraba Bantang.
“Nobody gave command for the use of firearms because we want to stabilise the country and Faraba in particular and we are going to look at the root cause of the unfortunate incident.”
She said for eight months now, the government has been engaging the community and local authorities in dialogue in a ‘very peaceful way’.
She said President Barrow also promised that the full force of the law would be applied to ensure justice and accountability and assured that such incident will ‘never be repeated’ under his watch.
Describing the incident as unfortunate, the VP said government was looking to solve the matter judiciously and ‘as soon as possible’ because The Gambia is a signatory to the African Union protocol, which is advocating for the silencing of the gun by 2020 and other conventions which are advocating for the protection of human and people’s rights.
The Faraba incident sparked a wave of panic in the country, and showed a colossal destruction of properties following its residents demand for explanation on how a construction company ‘Julakay’ acquired license to conduct sand mining in their community.
This is the second time that security forces open fire on protesters after Barrow came to power.
In June last year, protester Haruna Jatta was shot and killed by the Ecomig peace forces in The Gambia.
