Law markers at the National Assembly, last Tuesday unanimously passed the Bill of the National Commission Against the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons.

This Bill provides for the establishment of the National Commission Against the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons as a body charged with the responsibility of putting in place policies and plans for the control of small arms and light weapons within the country. Tabling the Bill before deputies, the secretary of state for the Interior, Ousman Sonko, said the move is in pursuance of the decision of the heads of state and governments of ECOWAS relative to the declaration of the moratorium on the importation, expatiation and magnification of small arms on member states.

Communities in The Gambia may personably, be weapons-free, but given the internecine conflict going on at its southern border with Senegal, and the wars that have recently ended elsewhere on the sub-region, the need to control and arrest cross-border trafficking in and illegal private possession of small arms cannot be over-emphasised," he noted. The Interior secretary of state posited that the maintenance of peace and security, with its benefits of freedom from threat, fear and anxiety, as well as development of enterprise and prosperity must be pursued with vigour and the full force of the law.

Reaction
Reacting to the bill, the Serrekunda West parliamentarian, Honourable Sulayman Joof, described the move as laudable. He noted that the spread of small arms and light weapons can be a contributing factor to armed robbery and added that the fact that The Gambia is peaceful country which has never experienced any armed conflict does not meant that we should be complacent. Honourable Joof further pointed that taking into account the armed conflicts within the sub-region, there is tendency for light weapons to get into the country, which in his view could threaten the country’s peace and stability.

For Honourable Amadou Jallow, NAM for Upper Fulladu, the masses need to be sensitised  about the dangers involved in keeping weapons in communities. The Lower Fulladu West parliamentarian, Honourable Yerrow Mballaw, emphasised the need to put in place the mechanisms and the human resource capacity to ensure effectiveness.

In a separate development at the Assembly on Tuesday, the law markers considered and adopted various reports emanating from the engagements of the various select committees. Among these were the report on Africa Regional Public Accounts seminar held in Ghana, annual report of the Independent Electoral Commission, and the report on the International Parliamentary conference on International Migration and  Trafficking.