Youth parliament ‘not part of anti-Assembly protest’

By Omar Bah The National Youth Parliament (NYP) in a statement sent to this medium has denied any in the recently staged youth protest against the National Assembly members. Young people stormed the assembly demanding the resignation of members after accusing the lawmakers of siding with the former president, Yahya Jammeh. The statement reads: Following a petition against the National Assembly members which was dated Monday 23rd of January 2017 initiated by some youth-led organizations which placed the following demands? 1. Revocation of the State of emergency bill; 2. To apologize to the people for subverting the will of the Gambian people; 3. Demand for the resignation of our National Assembly members for failing in their responsibilities to protect our rights and represent our interest as electorates; Among the list of organizations claimed to have signed indicating support for the said protest was the National Youth Parliament -The Gambia (NYP). In light of the above, the National Youth Parliament- The Gambia wants to make its position crystal clear; that the signature indicated for NYP is not done in due course and it doesn’t reflect our consent as an Institution, as it was not unanimously consented to by our members. NYP as an organisation owe a duty to the Youths it represents to act only within our constitution, hence we will continue to uphold our responsibility as indicated above. On the above notion, this serve as a disclaimer that the NYP is not participating in whatsoever capacity to effect such a protest against the National Assembly members, knowing fully well that it is not within our mandate to call for the resignation of Deputies. Therefore, we have caucus that none of our members will part take in such uncalled for protest and that any member of the NYP who participates in the protest is doing so in his/her individual capacity and not as a member of the NYP. Finally, the National Youth Parliament is requesting for the organisers of the protest to kindly remove the NYP as a participant to the protest against the Parliamentarians as the case may be with immediate effect. Thanks.]]>