By: Kebba AF Touray
Abdou Njie, Chairman of Three Years Jotna, said on Thursday their planned protest will be a peaceful one and that it is scheduled for 16th December 2019.
He made this statement on Thursday 27th November 2019, during an interview with this reporter at the Foroyaa Headquarters in Churchill’s Town.
He said the whole country is in dilemma as to how Three Years Jotna will conduct its peaceful demonstration and this has attracted a lot questions, but assured that they have done all the necessary preparations ahead of D-Day.
He added that they have applied for permit at the Police Headquarters so that Gambians will know that on the 16th December, they will embark on peaceful protest.
Njie explicated, “We will all converge at the Westfield Youth Monument in peace and tranquility. But I warn everybody that nobody should come with even a ‘pen’ (except for the Journalists), more so a stone or any metal or any other object that can hurt people”.
He said they will start their procession at Westfield to McCarthy Square in Banjul where they will make their statement and convey their message to him, adding that they will later return home in the evening to continue their normal business in peace.
On how are they going to ensure a peaceful protest? Njie explained: “We are relying on the country’s security officials as their role is to ensure peace and stability in the country. They are paid by the taxpayers.”
He was however quick to point out that they have no doubt that the country’s security forces will handle the protest with professionalism.
He added that they are convinced that the security forces will rightfully execute their duty during the procession as it is their primary role to ensure law and order and that no one needs to dictate to them (the security) how they should do their work.
According to him, they plan to make their stance known to the President on 16th of December. He added that their position is that the President should step down from office.
He said the only objective of Three Years Jotna is to ensure that leaders see Gambians as human beings who must be fairly treated with dignity and respect. He said the movement is formed and financed by Gambians both at home and abroad and has its membership across the country.
He warned: “if anybody comes to the protest with any object that can hurt people or to create violence, we have our own people who will handle such people and hand them over to the police, because we have people in our midst whose role would be to observe the people during the protest”.
