President, Gambia Transport Union
By Landing Ceesay
The President of the Gambia Transport Union (GTU) Omar Ceesay has said that the Gambia government has no interest in improving the transportation system in the country.
“If you could remember, three months ago we called a Press Conference after the nationwide tour. We shared our findings and recommendations with you (the media) and all the authorities including our line Ministry. I handed over our findings and recommendations to the President of the Republic of the Gambia (Adama Barrow) at the State House.
“But for more than 3 months now neither our line Ministry nor the President has responded to our findings and recommendations which clearly shows that the Gambia government has no interest in improving our transportation system in the country,” Omar Ceesay alleged.
He said GTU is not an opposition to the Gambia and they will never be opposition to them. He said all they are doing is to fight for the rights of their members and the Gambian people at large.
“We asked the government to increase the fares since up to date they didn’t increase the fares. We asked them to allocate garages for us all over the country since up to date they didn’t provide even a single piece of land for us as a garage. We don’t have these powers only they (government) have these powers but still, they have not executed these powers. We are all seeing fuel prices being increased almost every week or month. But the government refused to allow us to increase fares,” Mr Ceesay lamented.
The GTU President alleged that the government refused to increase the fares but they (the drivers) will also continue cutting fares and the government cannot do anything about that. He said the reason people pay more than 50 dalasi from Banjul to Brikama is because the government refused to increase the fares that’s why.
He threatened that the union would embark on an industrial action in September, if the government fails to grant their demands.
“If the government did not allow us to increase the fares, allocate garages for us all over the country and our other demands before on the 13th of September we will embark on a nationwide sit-down strike. The only reason we will not embark on a sit-down strike is when the government meets our demands or comes up with very genuine reasons,” Ceesay, GTU President, told Journalists at a press conference in Banjul.
The President Conference took place on the 17th August 2021 at the Gambia Transport Union’s Headquarters in Banjul.
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