By Louise Jobe / Fatoumata Jallow
The National Assembly Member for Serrekunda, Halifa Sallah, received a rousing welcome on his return from his Europe trip by supporters, for what he is advocating for. A large crowd was at the airport to welcome him.
Scores of mini buses (‘gele geles’) of supporters formed a convoy that drove from the airport to the PDOIS headquarters in Churchill’s Town. The supporters chanted: “The sun has risen to shine over darkness.”
Regarding the press release purporting to have come from the President’s Office relating Halifa Sallah’s speech in London, he told journalists at the airport that he will call the Secretary General at the Office of the President to find out whether the statement was actually from the Office of the President. He promised to also contact the Director General of GRTS and the Minister of Information to find out the source of the Press Release. He added that his position is as important as a ministerial post, if not more important.
From a meeting in Brussels, Halifa Sallah travelled to London to address a meeting of supporters. He then proceeded to address a gathering of the Gambian Community and the Africans of Caribbean connection in Birmingham, UK. From Birmingham he went to Manchester where he spoke to the Gambian Community and the Africans of Caribbean connection. After Manchester where the fifth Pan African Congress was held in 1945, he went back to the House of Commons to meet a Parliamentary colleague and then proceeded to hold a conference with the community of Africans of Caribbean connections in London, many of whom have been coming to The Gambia, during the Jammeh era and were waiting for him for an explanation on how they could pursue their goals in The Gambia, under the current order.
Halifa Sallah finally travelled to Belgium where he met the Gambian Community and a law firm interested in protecting Gambia’s interest during international arbitration, as a result of suits against the Government as well as to prevent future ones. It is part of his schedule to meet the Flemish Chamber of Commerce in Antwerp, to find out what they have in stock by way of investment in Africa in general and Gambia in particular, to ensure a win- win situation.
He was also scheduled to be taken on a conducted tour of the Federal Parliament of Belgium and discuss Parliamentary issues, exchange views with the Head of the Africa section at the Ministry, have a tete-a-tete with prominent political activists, conduct interviews and address University students at a Symposium organised to explain the role of the Diaspora in a New Gambia.
Halifa Sallah was scheduled to complete the tour in Belgium with a meeting with the Officers of the Africa Desk of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a guided tour of the port of Zeebrugge, to review how Gambia’s fruits and nuts could be packaged to reach EU markets.
