The National Human Rights Commission has issued a statement denouncing the comment of President Adama Barrow against the proscribed Three Years Jotna movement. 

President Barrow said at a rally in Farafenni that: “when I throw teargas on them … from that day to now, Three Years Jotna died in this country as if it never existed.”

But in a statement signed by the chairman of the rights commission, Emannuel Joof, said: “the NHRC is extremely concerned about the statements uttered by President Adama Barrow at his recent political campaign in Farafenni when he seemingly took pride in the use of tear gas by the paramilitary unit of the Gambia Police Force to forceful dispersal a protest of the Three Years Jotna movement.”

“As an organ established by the State to promote and protect human rights in The Gambia and nurture a culture of respect for human rights, the Commission wishes to express in the strongest term its displeasure with such statements and to state categorically that utterances which would encourage and or glorify human rights violations and violence have no place in our society,” he added.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba