Commuters Lament Imposture Of State of Public Emergency

Photo: President 

By Ousman A. Marong

Drivers in the Greater Banjul Area yesterday lamented the declaration made the president impose a state of public emergency without prior information.

According to them, the action is a punishment for them because a lot of them who are doing legitimate businesses now have their vehicles stranded in town.

They said that because of the congestion on the highway, some vehicles spend up to four hours paddling the road before reaching their final destination, adding that in order to avoid that long delay, some drivers resort to desperate measures which include smuggling.

It could be recalled that President Adama Barrow on Friday declared a one-week state of public emergency amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

On his part, Ebrima Cham, a driver at the Brikama garage said; "there are legitimate businesses going on along the corridors of Banjul and Serrekunda respectively and as such, the government  of The Gambia must not paint everybody with the same brush."

However, he said that the traffic congestion along the Brikama, Banjul Highway is the main reason for the smuggling of passengers across the country.

Baboucarr Bahoum, another driver, said he is in full support of the police monitoring the drivers to ensure they are not overloading.

He warned police officers too wisely use the measure made to work and not the situation whereby law enforcement officers would take advantage of it and by exploiting drivers in the form of collecting bribes and allowing them to be overloading their vehicles.

"This move by the government is to help us all for not contacting the virus. Gambians are not easy to help, social distancing should not only stop at a public gathering, but it should also go beyond that," he remarked.

On her part, Amie Jawara, a trader at the Brikama market, said most of their customers came from Serekunda and Banjul, adding that it is wrong for a President to pronounce a state of public emergency without making any prior information to the general public.

 "I was on a commercial bus yesterday evening and I saw police officers collecting bribe from some drivers allowing them to illegally smuggled passengers without following the due measures of limiting the loads imposed on drivers," she concluded.