Pubdate: Mon, 15 Mar 2004
Source: Independent, The (Gambia)
Copyright: The Independent 2004
Contact:  http://www.qanet.gm/Independent/independent.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2912

MIXED SIGNALS FROM THE POLICE

Banjul

"Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere" - Martin Luther King Jr

Many people in this country were no doubt taken aback by the recent 
contradictory remarks emanating from the police regarding whether or not 
they should apologise to Ousainou Darboe, the leader of the United 
Democratic Party and a senior lawyer over a raid carried out by the police 
on his law chambers. While the former Police Public Relations Officer Pa 
Amady Jallow tendered an apology to Mr. Darboe on behalf of the Inspector 
General of Police, describing the raid as a mistake, that statement was 
contradicted a few days later by the Crime Management Coordinator Abu Njie, 
who in a public rebuttal in The Point newspaper said the raid was indeed 
intended for Mr. Darboe's law chambers and that his men had no intention of 
apologizing for it.

While indeed everyone seems to have appreciated the apology as a sign of 
maturity on the part of the police, many people were also quite 
disappointed when the CMC came up with his own rebuttal. That was what 
eventually led to the decision of PRO Jallow to step down as PRO, 
apparently because his position as the official spokesperson of the police 
has been compromised by such contradictory remarks from a senior police 
officer. Indeed everyone had expected that whatever the PRO said was a 
reflection of the official position of the police on any particular issue. 
Therefore, protocol demands that if any senior officer like CMC Njie had 
any reservations on it, he should have discussed it with the IGP rather 
than making his own public rebuttal, at least to prevent the washing of 
their dirty linen in public.

While I agree with CMC Njie that Ousainou Darboe is not above the law and 
that it is not out of place to search his chambers or even his 
privateresidence when there is enough reason to believe that something 
illegal is going on there, but as an opposition leader, he deserves to be 
handled with caution, if not for anything, but it can be easily given some 
political connotation. While no one is suggesting that he or any other 
opposition leader should be behave any how they like with impunity, but 
like every other party leader in this country, Mr. Darboe is like a head of 
state in waiting and as such, he deserves to be treated with special 
respect reserved for our leadership.

While it is possible that CMC Njie's men who conducted the search on Mr. 
Darboe's chambers did so with ingenuity, but the allegations that they also 
took liberty to read the personal files of his clients and even attempted 
to take away somepolitical correspondence which had absolutely no 
connection with what they were purportedly looking for, appeared to 
indicate an ulterior motive for the search other than just looking for 
illegal drugs as they indicated. Under the circumstances therefore, it was 
quite in order to apologise to Mr. Darboe. Indeed the decision by the PRO 
to step down after the incident seems to have attracted quite a lot of 
sympathies for him, both from the members of the public and even his own 
colleagues in the force. "Under the circumstances, that was the only 
credible thing for him to do, and if I were in his position, I would have 
done exactly the same thing," remarked a senior police officer. The apology 
to Mr. Darboe was seen by some people as a clever attempt at 
damage-limitation by the IGP and therefore, the rebuttal by CMC Njie was 
seen as unfortunate.

The incident seems to have attracted quite sympathy and appreciation for 
both the former PRO and the IGP for their bold and unusual decision to 
accept, at least for once that the police made a mistake and apologized.

However, on the other hand, hardly anyone sympathized with the position 
taken by CMC Njie.

This incident has once again brought to the fore the role of the police as 
a public service institution. What people like CMC Njie need to understand 
is that the police, like all other public service institutions should try 
as much as possible to demonstrate political neutrality.

Therefore, such an unprecedented search on Ousainou Darboe's premises and 
the provocative manner it was allegedly carried out could have been easily 
interpreted to have been politically motivated. Therefore, the apology 
seems to have been a well-calculated attempt by the IGP to limit the 
repercussions, which CMC Njie did not seem to fully grasp.
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