Rohey John-Manjang, minister of environment, has scolded the opposition United Democratic Party for taking legal action against the government over the appointment of regional governors.

UDP sued the Barrow government over the legality of appointments of the regional governors while demanding  the court to make a declaration that their appointments were “unlawful, illegal and therefore null and void”. 

The opposition party relied on sections 123,124 and 125 of the Local Government Act which states that “anyone appointed as a governor or a deputy governor must come from the civil service”.

However, the Barrow government had made a U-turn on the appointments by redeploying the regional governors and their deputies to the various ministries despite the pending court case. 

Reacting to UDP’s legal case against the government over the governor’s appointment, RoheyJohn-Manjang lashed out at the opposition party without mentioning its name while speaking to Star FM exclusively. 

She said the legal case was an attempt to “distract” the Barrow government from doing its responsibilities.

“Yahya Jammeh appointed governors who didn’t go to school, governors who couldn’t neither read nor write. Where were those people who sued the Barrow government today?” she said, while insisting that “those redeployed governors and their deputies hold master’s degrees.”  

“Where are the governors they appointed when they were in the government? They were the same grades. All they say is those people applied but if you are employing someone to a position you employ them based on their qualifications. But you don’t just employ someone because they’ve applied without following the laws. They are the first people who violated the laws of the country.”

“For me the legal case against the appointment of the governors is just a mechanism to distract the government from doing their responsibility. We don’t take this thing as a big issue. You were in the government and you didn’t complain about the appointment of the governors until you are now out of the government,” she added.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba