Information Minister Ebrima Sillah today (5 April) hit back at pressure groups calling for the the Independent Electoral Commission to suspend the ruling National People’s Party.

Sillah described the groups as “angry folks”, adding that the NPP will not be distracted by them.

He said: “I want to say that the matter was addressed to the Independent Electoral Commission, I would rather want the IEC to address this than us. But I can tell you as NPP we are spiritedly engaged in winning the majority seats in the National Assembly and we don’t want to get distracted by Jeggan Grey Johnson and his team.

“However, let me say, engaging government institutions and holding them accountable is important and relevant in democracy but if you want people to listen to you, you have to be somebody who writes in a manner that when the receiver gets it, they can know that they are dealing with people with disciplined minds.

“When you are writing a position paper and you are calling people lackey, you are putting all kinds of names associated with those people, you don’t expect them to treat you with respect and I hope they will take note of that.”

“They are not anybody’s children here. When we were doing this struggle the likes of Jegan Senghore were nowhere to be found. And I am surprised people like DUGA, very credible people are allowing themselves to be in cohort with these people,” he added.

On Monday the pressure groups, Right 2 Know Coalition-Gambia and The Democratic Union of Gambian Activists, made a list of NPP “violations” in a letter sent to the IEC. 

They accused the NPP government of violating the elections act by refusing to hold a congress. 

The IEC is yet to respond to the groups suspension call but a spokesman told Gambiana that they will make a statement after the parliamentary elections. 

Reporting by Adama Makasuba