Africa-Press – Gambia. Gambians Against Looted Assets (GALA) urgently demands that the National Assembly initiate a Special Investigation into all land allocations made between December 2017 and December 2024.
This period has seen widespread allegations of illegal and discriminatory allocation of state land to privileged officials and non-Gambians.
Meanwhile, countless unprivileged Gambian citizens, for whom the Land Act was designed to provide settlement opportunities, continue to struggle with exorbitant rents and lack of access to their own land. This deeply concerning situation represents a betrayal of public trust and a fundamental injustice. Furthermore, we demand your immediate action as a follow-up petition delivered to your office by Madi Jobarteh, Omar Sambo Camara, and Babucarr Nyang.
The petition addresses critical issues that demand the National Assembly’s direct and thorough intervention regarding the land allocations:
1. Discriminatory Land Allocation Concerns: A comprehensive review of the land allocations is paramount.
We demand an investigation into how state land, intended to benefit all citizens, has been disproportionately and, in many cases, illegally allocated.
We seek to understand the mechanisms that have allowed privileged individuals and non-Gambians to gain unfair access, while unprivileged Gambians remain landless.
2. Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) Corruption: We demand a full and transparent investigation into the alleged D300 million corruption scandal at the Gambia Ports Authority.
The National Assembly must take a decisive stance against such blatant financial misconduct that deprives the nation of its revenue.
3. Accountability for Audit Report Implications: We call upon the National Assembly to summon all institutions implicated in the audit reports to ensure full accountability. It is imperative that those responsible for mismanagement, fraud, or corruption are held to account and that robust measures are put in place to prevent future occurrences.
The people of The Gambia deserve full transparency and justice. The National Assembly, as the representative body of the Gambian people, has a constitutional duty to uphold good governance, combat corruption, and protect public assets.
This includes ensuring equitable access to land, a fundamental right for every citizen.
Failure to act decisively on the issues would be a grave negligence of this duty. We demand a response within a timeframe of two (2) months effective today, outlining the steps the National Assembly will take to address the matters.
We are prepared to engage further to ensure that the investigations are thorough, impartial, and lead to concrete outcomes that benefit all Gambians.
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