The Gambia Market Union has written a petition to President Adama Barrow appealing to him to allow markets to open from 7am to 5pm or they will take to the streets to express their dissatisfaction.

In the petition,  they stated that: “We would want your office to allow and authorize us to operate from 7am to 5pm. We the market committees will physically work together with the securities to monitor the public gatherings and to respect the rules.”

The statement further reads: “We fully understand that the regulations are created to initiate measures to effectively deal with the pandemic. This is since the regulations were imposed the underlined markets have fully respected all the provisions as attested to by the health authorities

“We have also bought buckets and placed them in strategic locations in and outside of the market’s doors to encourage hands washing, public spacing and regularize ourselves in accordance with the advice of the health authorities.”

They also reminded the President that the majority of the vendors at the market have not benefited from the food distribution that was initiated by the government to support Gambians to stay home amidst this unprecedented period.

Abdoulie Camara, the Secretary General of the LatriKunda market said, the union is looking forward to receiving a reply from the government, the president to be specific before Monday 7 August 2020 or they will embark on a strike.

“We want all shops to open at the same time – from 7am to anytime they want to give us. We are doing this out of frustration; things are really hard with us and we cannot continue keeping quiet,” Camara lamented.

Also, the the management of the Serekunda market also wrote to the president urging the government to waive duties on vendors

“We write to appeal to the government to waive our monthly duties and yearly revenue payments to the Gambia Revenue Authority. You will bear witness with us that the public state of emergency has affected us severely and any attempt to charge us duties or GRA fees will hit us seriously.

“We also want to bring to your attention the impact the emergency regulations continue to cause on the country’s biggest market. We suffered more compared to any other market in the country.” The statement said.

By: Fatoumatta Samateh.