BANJUL, June 1 (Reuters) – Gambia has hired a U.S. law firm to explore legal action after a government-backed investigation found that contaminated medicines from India were “very likely” to have caused the deaths of children last year, the justice minister told Reuters.

At least 70 children in Gambia, most under 5 years old, died from acute kidney injury between June and October.

Local doctors suspected cough syrups imported from India were the likely culprit, Reuters reported earlier this year, and tests by the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the presence of lethal toxins, sparking a global hunt for contaminated medicines.

Gambian Justice Minister Dawda Jallow told Reuters legal action was one option under consideration by the government, the first sign of potential international litigation over the deaths. Jallow did not say who would be the target of potential legal proceedings or name the law firm hired to help.

The medicines linked to the children’s deaths were made by Indian drug maker Maiden Pharmaceuticals, which denied wrongdoing. Tests by the WHO found that the Maiden cough syrups contained the lethal toxins diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG), used in car brake fluid. India’s government has said its own tests on the drugs found no toxins.

India’s health ministry and Maiden did not respond to requests for comment on Gambia’s possible legal action. The WHO declined to comment.

Indian officials have said the WHO failed to prove a causal link to the Gambia deaths, accusing the agency of denigrating its $41 billion pharmaceutical industry. However, cough syrups made by a second Indian drugmaker have been linked to the deaths of 19 children in Uzbekistan. India has since made drug testing mandatory for cough syrups before export.

CAUSALITY REPORT

Gambia’s justice ministry is considering its options after completion of a new government-commissioned causality assessment by a panel of international experts, Jallow said.

Reuters has seen a copy of the report, which was presented to President Adama Barrow in April but has not been made public.

In it, experts said they analysed 56 of the cases of acute kidney injury. Of those, they found 22 were “very likely” to have died from DEG or EG poisoning after taking Maiden products.

The panel could not confirm the cause of death in another 30 cases but said it was “highly suggestive” they were killed by DEG and EG. It said there was not enough evidence in four other cases.

Doctors were able to carry out autopsies on just two of the patients. The pathology from both was consistent with DEG and EG poisoning, the report said. Of all the medicines tested after the deaths, only Maiden’s were shown to be toxic, it said.

DEG and EG can be used by unscrupulous actors as a cheap substitute for propylene glycol, a key ingredient in syrupy medicines, according to several pharmaceutical manufacturing experts.

Reuters could not determine if Indian authorities had seen the causality report.

It is the latest piece of a months-long investigation into the deaths, which raised concerns among global health officials about lax regulation in India’s drug sector and oversight of pharmaceutical raw materials worldwide. Many of the countries India supplies, including Gambia, have no means of testing imported drugs.

The WHO has said it is continuing to investigate the source of contaminated cough syrups in Gambia, Uzbekistan and several other countries, but has been frustrated by a lack of information regarding Maiden’s drugs. A key middleman in the supply chain of those medicines is still unknown, Reuters found.

Gambia’s Minister Dawda said the causality assessment and the justice ministry’s recommendations would e made public within six months.

Gambia is planning to build a testing facility for imported drugs with support from the World Bank, the bank told Reuters.

Credit to: Reuter: By Pap Saine and Edward Mcallister

The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 Presidential election, Mr Peter Obi and his party on Thursday sought an order of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja to interrogate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the experts on Information and Communication Technology ICT) used for the conduct of the election.

In two separate motions argued on behalf of the petitioners by Patrick Ikweto, (SAN), they sought to know the quality of the ICT experts deployed in the use of technology for the conduct of the presidential election.

In the two motions, Obi and LP prayed the court to compel INEC to supply them with names and profiles of the ICT personnel that handled the technical aspects of the election.

They posed 12 questions to be forwarded to the electoral body for answers so as to aid them in establishing their allegations of gross violation of the constitution, the Electoral Act and INEC’s guidelines in the conduct of the election.

The petitioners claimed that the request if granted would assist them in the effective presentation of their petition challenging the declaration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the election.

However, INEC represented by Kemi Pinhero objected to Obi’s bid to subject his client to interrogation through incompetent applications.

Pinhero argued that Obi’s applications had become belated because he brought them outside the time allowed by law.

He specifically argued that such an application ought to have been brought and argued during the pre-hearing session, adding that bringing the application outside the pre-hearing session has robbed the court of the jurisdiction to hear it.

The senior lawyer insisted that the application must fail because it is a waste of time, adding that the precious time of the court must not be expended on such a request.

President Tinubu represented by Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), represented by Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), in their submissions, kicked against granting of the request, insisting that the application is grossly incompetent in the face of the law.

Meanwhile, the presiding Justice of the five-member panel, Justice Haruna Tsammani has reserved the ruling in the applications and fixed Friday, June 9 for further hearing in the petition.

Credit to: Tribuneonline

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Sierra Leone’s president expressed hopes in an AFP interview that a newly announced African mediation effort would end Russia’s war in Ukraine “for the sake of humanity”.

“We are all suffering as a result of the war in Ukraine… For the sake of humanity, for what is happening, let’s end the war,” said President Julius Maada Bio, who was elected in 2018 and will next month seek a second term.

“I think even those who sympathise with Russia are in favour of stopping this war,” he said in the Wednesday interview.

The leaders of Zambia, Senegal, the Republic of Congo, Uganda, Egypt and South Africa will next month launch a mission to Moscow and Kyiv to try to broker peace.

African countries, which were already struggling from the Covid-19 pandemic, have been hit hard by the war and its impact on supply chains and prices.

African countries have been divided at the UN over the conflict, but Sierra Leone has voted with Western nations in favour of resolutions to condemn Russia’s actions.

Last July, Sierra Leone slashed three zeros off its currency hoping to restore confidence in the inflation-hit leone unit.

In August, riots erupted over the rising cost of living and 27 civilians and six police officers were killed.

“We have a vested interest in seeing to it that that war comes to an end as quickly as possible… especially as a country that has gone through war before — but also (because of) the impact on us,” said Bio.

Sierra Leone’s mineral-dependent economy is still recovering from a brutal 1991-2002 civil war and the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic.

Bio, 59, who was elected in 2018, also set out plans to end his country’s reliance on food imports and foreign aid.

“It is not a pleasure to go begging around nations, when you say you’re a sovereign nation,” he said. “I believe that we can do enough to develop our own resources.”

He said agriculture would be a second term focus, pledging “serious policy shift in the Ministry of Agriculture to be able to produce our staple food, to the point that we will not need to import rice”.

The West African country of 8 million people will hold presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections on June 24.

Credit to:

The unprecedented development, according to its management, is due to the high commitment to supporting the government in achieving its national development priorities especially in resources mobilisation among others.

Speaking to The Point Newspaper in an exclusive interview, Seedy M. Touray, the director general of GID, said: “This extraordinary development is due to management’s commitment in ensuring that it does not only meet their revenue target yearly, but also to surpass our target.”

“When I was appointed as the GID boss in 2018, my top priority was to ensure that the country’s immigration department is massively reformed with a view to ensure that they are up to standard. I can happily tell you that these reforms have paid dividends now. It’s through the reforms and the repositioning of the GID to the right direction that we are able to make this huge amount of money in just three months,” he posited.

Quizzed as to how the GID was able to collect the D64, 000, 000 in just three months, he said: “Apart from the reforms that we have undertaken at the GID, I have also made sure that the immigration officers adhere to approved financial practises at the office and also zero tolerance to corruption among others. I can assure you all that this trend will continue. As far as I am the GID boss, I will not entertain anything that has the potential of hindering revenue collection.”

DG Touray added: “I also ensure that my staff embark on a vigorous sensitisation countrywide on the significance of payment of national documents, aliens among others. These are all geared towards ensuring that we create an environment where people will voluntarily come and pay for their documents. In fact, this is happening. People are now coming forward without even our officers going to them. This is a welcoming development,” he stated.

“This massive revenue collection in just three months is also as a result of my intervention, the regional commissioners as well as stations and unit heads were advised and assisted to adhere to the approved financial practises, zero tolerance to corruption, intensified engagements for non-Gambians to regularise their status among others. Regular auditing exercises and follow-up throughout the country also helped in this unprecedented breakthrough.”

Karanlang Jarju, the officer in-charge of Statistics and Internal Audit at the GID, said: “This huge revenue collection is largely as a result of DG Touray’s unwavering commitment to not only reforming the GID, but also due to his foresights in creating programmes and policies that are in line with international standards.”

“We also make sure that we enforce immigration regulation in ensuring that non-citizens and citizens also regularise their status, hence that is why we make this massive revenue collection in just three months.”

Mamanding S. Dibba, the spokesperson of the GID, said: “Since the appointment of DG Touray, there has never been business as usual. What he (DG Touray), always wants is to ensure that people adhere to his plan and policies that are geared towards the betterment and advancement of the GID. I am not surprised that we made this huge revenue collection. Again, with DG Touray at the helm of affairs of the Immigration, more of this revenue will be collected in subsequent years.”

Credit to: thepoint.gm

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In a small fishing village outside of the Senegalese capital, Ismaila Diene and his wife on Tuesday said goodbye to their youngest son, killed last week during protests that have shaken the country.

The grieving couple don’t want to lay the blame on anyone, and as for many of the 16 people killed in Senegal’s worst spasm of political violence in years, the circumstances of 33-year-old Doudou Diene’s death is shrouded in mystery.

Ismaila, a retired teacher, says the family got the call late on Friday that their son was in hospital and had been shot. He died about six hours later.

They spoke to Doudou on the phone and, as is tradition in Senegal before dying, “he asked his mother and I for forgiveness. I don’t know under what circumstances he was shot,” said Ismaila.

Doudou was married, with a 14-month-old baby, and had two brothers and a sister.

The fishing village of Bargny, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the capital Dakar, was one of the sites hit by angry protests after firebrand opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of “corrupting” a young woman.

The verdict is likely to make Sonko ineligible to run in the 2024 presidential elections, and the former tax inspector alleges the charges were a conspiracy to halt his rising political star.

Bargny, with its sandy paths weaving between faded homes, paid a heavy price, with three killed in the protests, according to several municipal
officials.

“Doudou didn’t take part in the protests, or in politics,” said his weeping mother, Mbene Mbeye, dressed in a white headdress and flowing robes.

The government and opposition blame each other for the deaths.

The opposition points to harsh repression of the protests, while the government denounced a planned destabilisation effort by “dark forces,” foreigners, and armed men.

When the police asked Ismaila what he plans to do, he said he would file a complaint.

“I hope that there will be justice, because there are things that cannot go unpunished,” he said.

“Losing a child is a terrible emotional shock. Either way, justice will be done, if it is not at the hands of men, it will be in the afterlife.”

“Let justice be done. Innocent people are dying. It’s not normal,” said Doudou’s mother, also a retired teacher, shortly before leaving for the mosque for the funeral prayer.

Hundreds of relatives and neighbours gathered at a green mosque where the coffin was laid.

After about ten minutes of tributes, the silent procession of men took the path to the cemetery, on the edge of the town.

The women will visit the grave later.

AFP

Credit to: Punch News