By Omar Bah
The chairman of the Brikama Area Council, Yankuba Darboe, has announced that the opposition United Democratic Party’s case against the appointment of five regional governors and their immediate deputies will continue. The case was struck out last month after the party or its representatives failed to turn up on a scheduled sitting day.
Meanwhile, the governors were redeployed back to their jobs last week.
The UDP had wanted the court to make a declaration that their appointments were unlawful, illegal and therefore null and void. They relied on sections 123, 124 and 125 of the Local Government Act which states that anyone to be appointed as a governor or a deputy governor must come from the civil service.
Even before the conclusion of the case, the officials were redeployed to various ministries while their deputies were posted to the ministry of local government.
Reacting to the return of the governors in a message shared with The Standard, Chairman Yankuba Darboe said: “When a nation is led by a leader who respects the rule of law, he avoids petty squabbles of appointing unqualified people for the wrong positions. But presidents with authoritarian attitude, example ‘my way or no way’ will only force their citizens to defy and resist them. This UDP case against the governors will surely resume in court, as the erroneous ruling to strike out the case, when a motion is to be determined, is already appealed to the Court of Appeal. There will be a separate challenge to the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of certain aspects of the case.”.
Yankuba said the president will undoubtedly continue to act as if he does not care, but those who refuse to succumb to that will do the needful. “What is expected of a leader is to do what is right and not impose his will on the people regardless of what the law said,” he said.
