An estimated 30, 000 protesters have marched on the outskirts of the Gambian capital Banjul to hand over a petition with a month’s ultimatum demanding President Adama Barrow to respect his election campaign promise and step down after three years.
The leaders of the protesters under the Three Years Jotna (Three years are up) movement handed a strongly-worded petition to government spokesman Ebrima Sankareh in the main approaches to Denton Bridge, which links Banjul to the rest of the country.
The petition among other things gave President Barrow until January 10 to respond to their resolutions, failing which they will stage another protest in Banjul nine days later and would do so without applying for a police permit for that purpose.
The procession had assembled at an intersection, some four miles away on Monday morning and marched to the bridge waving anti-Barrow placards and banners against the backdrop of a carnival atmosphere with music and dancing.
Since 7am, protesters from all over the country wearing campaign T-Shirts bearing the insignia of the 03YJ movement have been converging at the rallying point for the protest.
The movement had initially planned to hold their demonstration from Westfield Junction in the heart of the country’s biggest town Serrekunda and move like a procession towards Banjul and the seat of government at State House where they were to deliver their petition to President Barrow himself.
However the Gambian police wary of the possibility that criminals and anarchists could melt into the crowds and wreak havoc had other ideas.
They would not take chances with the original arrangement by the protesters and therefore restricted the demonstration to the highway, which is physically isolated from any settlement, human or industrial.
According to the police directive to the protest leaders, their procession should start at 10 o’clock at the rallying point known as Sting Corner and end “some 200 metres from the Denton Bridge” at 2pm.
Speaking on private radio on Monday, government spokesman Sankareh said the procession was not allowed around towns and cities because of its propensity to disrupt the free movement of traffic especially in a bustling settlement like Serrekunda at the start of a fresh week.
In the days before the protesters social commentators had mocked the leaders of the movement, poking fun at the “preposterous idea of holding a demonstration in no man’s land”.
Meanwhile security was beefed up in Serrekunda and Banjul 24 hours before the demonstration in response to concerns by a wary public that there could be trouble.
Gambians on Monday woke up to a heavy security presence in the streets especially those leading to business and industrial zones.
Schools and some shops in Banjul had remained shut on Monday.
The Three Years Jotna movement had the stated aim of bringing pressure to bear on President Barrow to step down in honour of his 2016 election promise if he won the vote and lead a three-year transitional government
The original approach of the movement’s was to spearhead a series of mass disobedience campaigns that encouraged civil servants not to report for work as part of exerting pressure on Barrow to stand down.
However, another movement in support of the president’s intentions to go for a full five-year term as constitutionally provisioned was quickly launched to checkmate that.
That counter movement has since lost its steam but its leaders have also applied for police permit to hold a rival procession at a later date backing Barrow’s wish to stay on as president until 2021.
In the run up to the December 2016 election which saw him oust his predecessor Yahya Jammeh, President Barrow at the head of a coalition of opposition parties promised to head a three-year transition government after which he would step down and organise fresh elections in which he would not be a contender.
However, three years later while Gambians generally see him as reneging on this electoral promise, many believe it is excusable given that the country’s constitution mandates that an elected president may serve for five years if he so wishes.
WN/as/APA