Hamat Bah, Tourism Minister and leader of the National Reconciliation Party, has admonished The Gambia Bar Association to stay out of party politics and instead focus on their constitutional mandate in defending the rule of law.

He accused the association of bias over recent comments made about the President Barrow Youth for National Development. In a speech on Sunday, the association’s president, Rachael Mendy, had accused President Barrow of setting up his youth movement for his “personal agenda” and that the movement would create “disunity among the youths” at a time when solidarity was needed to address the country’s social ills.

However, Bah disagreed strongly with Mendy’s statement and argued that it was unconstitutional. At his party’s press conference on Tuesday, Bah said the association statement was “self-contradictory.”

“I wondered why an association that is formed to defend the constitution was engaging in self-contradiction. Disappointingly enough, we heard from the President of the Bar Association on Sunday raising about the creation of youth movements in the country, knowing fully well (what) the constitution spelled out in chapter 4, Section 25.

“We bring the following questions to the Bar association: are they neglecting their responsibilities as provided in the constitution? Are they defending and protecting the provisions of the supreme law of the land as judicial officers? Are they neglecting that responsibility and now being partisan for the simple reason that a political party or a member of a political party has raised concerns about the Barrow Youth Movement?

“We want answers from the Bar association. We are concerned as citizens of this country, to tell the Gambian people if they are partisan, if they now decided to be a part of the political divide. We need to know.”

Meanwhile as the political mudslinging continues neither President Barrow nor his youth movement have made a formal response to the statement of The Gambia Bar Association.