By: Baba Jobe

It was Friday afternoon when I emerged from the Charing Cross tube station. I had just disembarked from a Northern Line sparsely filled train heading to Edgeware. I had travelled from the northwest of England to attend a protest organised by Gambian human rights activists to highlight the grave political events in The Gambia. It was nearly 01:00 pm when I started wondering the ever busy streets of one of London tourist attraction centres, Trafalgar Square. It didn’t take me long before I spotted a group of men and women of all tribes of The Gambia surrounding a compatriot giving a speech on The Gambian dire political situation.

The group had gathered there as part of efforts to end injustice and the political mayhem perpetrated by the dictatorial regime of Yahya Jammeh. The focal theme of the protest centered around the state murder of Ebrima Solo Sandeng and the controversial convictions of Lawyer Ousainou Darbo and 18 others of the the United Democratic Party.They were jailed last week after going through a politically motivated trial directed and dictated by Africa’s most ruthless dictator, Yahya Jammeh, using an unscrupulous judge from Nigeria.

Darboe and Co. were arrested on April 16 on Kairaba Avenue, during a peaceful demonstration calling for the release, dead or alive of party members who were arrested on April 14 in Westfield for demanding justice and electoral reforms.
The April 14 protest was led by UDP’s Solo Sandeng who died during torture under state custody and the others were also detained incommunicado for weeks before been produced before the courts, for they were equally tortured and suffering pains and under critical condition.
 
Sandeng’s dead prompted another demonstration on April 16th led by the party’s leader Ousainou Darboe and top executive members. They were arrested and detained in Mile II central prison and were systematically denied bail, after being charged on various offences relating to protesting without permit and disobeying orders from security personnel to disperse.

Their trial which took several months was criticised for the judge’s failure to promote an atmosphere that could guarantee free and fair proceedings, and had resulted in the defense team walking out of court and ceased their representation for the defendants. This came after the first presiding judge offered to step aside from the case, citing sensitiveness of the case. He urged the concerned parties to solve the situation through the inter party committee.

Ousainou Darboe, a seasoned lawyer himself did not bother to defend himself or others as he believed, from the judge’s style of presiding the trial, that his ‘conviction is predetermined’ and hence to defend himself is to assist the court to convict him. This is why the conviction, although annoying, it has not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the biased nature of the country’s Judiciary. Gambians and non Gambians alike has since express dismay and condemnation to what is obviously a travesty of justice.

Gambians in the United Kingdom have reacted to the conviction by holding a protest in the streets of London to express their distaste in dictator Jammeh’s barbaric quest to silence the United Democratic Party. The protest was attended by a large crowd including some familiar faces in the struggle to restore democracy and the rule of law in The Gambia. At the beginning of the event, attendees were taking through the illegality of the conviction and were given words of encouragement needed to be steadfast on the course of fighting for collective freedom of the Gambian people.

While the focal point was on the failure to deliver justice for the victims, Gambians have in their minds the threat of disunity in the country. This is as a result of Jammeh’s tribal discriminatory remarks against the Mandinka tribe. These rhetorics are part of his ‘divide and rule’ strategy aimed at disintegrating for what has been a coherent and intertwined society for his selfish gain. As such protesters were reminded about the divisive and dangerous nature of the tribal politics the Banjul monster is playing and were advised to continue to nurture the peaceful co-existence The Gambia and her people is known for.

Later in the day protesters had procession towards the Nigerian High Commission located at the Nigeria House in London, where we stood and chanted our words of discontent on the role of the Nigerian judges in aiding the dictatorship in the Gambia to oppress dissidents. At that, we ask the Nigerian government through the High Commissioner to stop sending what we believe are judges who do not have regards for the ethics governing the legal profession, and are ready to jeopardise the judicial independence for personal gains. We highlighted our expectations of Nigeria as a member of ECOWAS to be a role model in promoting justice in the sub-region and help in eliminating systematic injustice in the Gambia.

The demonstration was not only important but was also necessary. The bloody murder of Ebrima Solo Sandeng and the subsequent imprisonment of Lawyer Ousainou Darboe and his party supporters do not only highlight the barbaric nature of Jammeh’s dictatorship, but also shows it lack of regard for humanity, human rights and dignity. Killing of innocent citizens, which is Jammeh’s master plan in suppressing critics and political opponents to maintain a strong hold on power, is alien to what the true Gambian society is identified with- a society of peace and love where unity has been the driving force for a better living. This vital characteristic of the Gambian society is now put at risk by a villain who ironically refer to himself as ‘a dictator of development’.

Ebrima Solo Sandeng’s death adds to other numerous unresolved state-sponsored murders and disappearances, including the shooting death of Deyda Hydara by Jammeh’s hitmen from the Jungullar section of the army, the illegal execution of the nine death-row inmates in 2012, the disappearance of journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh, the murder of Daba Marenah and others.

The campaign to silence the UDP party came at a time when Gambians are desperate to find a solution to the country’s deteriorating economy that leave many ordinary households struggling for a decent and proper living. Instead of offering solution and restore hope, the increasingly paranoid dictator has resolved to the most unfortunately divisive and discriminatory remarks to cover his horrendous actions of oppressing the UDP members.

Political supporters are not only victims of Jammeh’s discriminatory rhetorics and uncalculated actions. The declaration of the country as an Islamic Republic is not just worrying but dangerous due to its potentials of descending the country into a civil conflict. It’s clear that the Gambia is a secular state as enshrined in the constitution. This part of the constitution guarantee impartiality and equal rights and nurture an atmosphere of liberalism to all citizens of all backgrounds. This is so important to our national values that only a lunatic like Jammeh,who is only after personal interest, will attempt to extinguish it.

The Gambia is at a crossroads, that Jammeh has gone too far and too fast in undermining the safety and security of the Gambian people. It’s obvious there is no Gambian who is immune to Jammeh’s menace. Every human being is entitled to certain basic rights and dignity that deserved to be respected. Being denied these basic elements as citizens is enough to abhor and stand up to the APRC brutal dictatorship.

This is why Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, decided to sacrifice his comfort zone to apply a brake on what’s a common Gambian notion of not being affected, and stood up for Solo Sandeng, not as UDP supporter but a Gambian who became a victim of tyranny. This is despite his full knowledge of the dangerous consequences. His selflessness, desire to fight for justice for all and sacrifice for humanity, define him as a man who loves his people and deserve no conviction from a mercenary judge hired by a ruthless dictator. Hence, this is why Gambians in the U.K held a political protest to express their repugnance to his conviction.

Nigerian mercenary judges just got rewarded for throwing much needed life line of extending Yahya Jammeh’s misrule with ten brand new executive cars and a brand new complex for their accommodation. Most people with an ounce of decency when confronted with their own record bias or their cruelty, will show remorse and regret. Hence, we expect decent human beings with empathy to privately react with a mixture of disgust and rage thereafter in life, and desire to see justice done. Not for the Nigerian mercenary judges who do not comprehend the heinousness of their crimes against the Gambian citizens daily and are proudly showing off to Yahya Jammeh how every precious dollar dished out to them are well spent.

They are out there, mocking frightened Gambians by displaying their gifts thereafter with facial and hand gestures in your face type of a thing whether we like it or not without any remorse, thereby manifesting their lack of appropriate judicial restraint. They are thumping their chest out with bravely, thus giving the middle finger to those who are still suffering from stomach-churning horrors, despair, loss of hope in our criminal justice system, as a result of trying to digest their flawed reasoning— to jail our elderly citizens and tortured women without mercy for 3 years with hard labor just for protesting injustice. In a similar vein, we should keep in mind that these heartless Nigerians judges colonizing our justice system in modern day slavery, have no empathy or compassion for fellow human being except the mighty dollar. We have Gambians whom much eloquent, educated and understand how to temper justice with mercy for our fellow citizens than these folks, whom are just around to make quick buck doing dirty jobs. They are actively involved in making up laws instead of interpreting existing laws and willing to make fool of themselves.

 
They have made notable improvements in Gambia’s sorry record of kidnappings, cruelty on our women, confiscation of properties and imprisonments of innocent Gambian citizens without cause. They are trading Gambian lives with mighty dollar happily and laughing to the banks. From all indications, they are proud to make every attempt to show the lengths to which they will deliver injustice to the Gambians and are not even intelligent enough to uphold a well-reasoned decision. Worse yet, Emmanuel Fagbenle could not hide his joy and thus incriminated himself on mouth regime piece— the Daily Observer. “We thank him [the President] for giving us ten brand new executive cars for the new judges and a brand new complex for their accommodation”. Gambians have a proud tradition of doing good and showing respect to our elders but these people have a different tradition of showing what’s wrong with them. Their mental and emotional complexity is alien to us.

Needless to say, there are no words in any language to express the cruelty of these people but one must wonder why, these mercenaries are aroused by images of old men being trampled by security officers wearing high-heel military booths and women grisly torture, but took pleasure in ignoring all those evidence. With such people steering our justice system, it is extraordinarily difficult to have narrow exceptions of justice being served for the Gambian citizens. The demonstration of Nigerian mercenary judge’s cruelty in the cases such April 14th and April 15th are disturbing in terms of illustrating just how low human being can go to travel to end of the West Africa, just to deliver harsh justice to innocent Gambians. But such cases can also restore faith in the cause we are fighting to free our country.

Our inability, or lack of will to come together as one people, is enabling these callous abusers—whom are practically impossible to understand when they speak, to use Gambia as a cash cow to fatten their appetite of money and take pleasure in seeing Gambians suffer. We have all witnessed how they provide too-soft penalties for abhorrent crimes as formality for regime to extend it terror on citizens and invent laws on their benches, just to earn a conviction. Gambia may be the only country in African now that actually trust mercenary judges and we are paying the hefty price for it. The most generous explanation we heard from them is that, they are around to cash in and really don’t care. The well-meaning Gambians whom are struck blind of their piety to fellow Gambians by trying to be self-righteousness and still dining with these people are just appeasing their wickedness. They need to go back to their homeland and take the remedial ethics classes they missed.

Now it should be clear to all, when Yahya Jammeh hired Nigerian mercenary judges whom all espouse his barbaric philosophy, it was clear he has abandoned all pretense of being a president who wants justice for his citizens. Nigerian mercenary judges have no problem showing Gambians what really lies under that hopeful lining and are ready to make outlandish rulings to earn a conviction. They see Gambia as a chance to extend their CV’s or resume, power to command public respect, and feed their appetite of money hunger with mighty dollar. Many lawyers and even ordinary Gambians, have expressed questions about their judicial temperament and craftsmanship because they are bullies on the bench or otherwise demonstrated out of touch with reality.

By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)

Mr. President, in your meeting with the elders of Banjul and religious leaders on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, you implored them to tell you the truth of what is not right. You said if they fail to do so, then they have failed the nation. I wish to take advantage to speak my truth to you. I hope you receive it in good faith.

It is with deep concern and remorse I received the news of the illegal conviction of Ousainou Darboe and 17 other decent Gambians to three years in jail for merely attempting to walk to a police station to demand the body, dead or alive of his colleague the late Solo Sandeng on April 16. Solo, the former youth leader of the opposition UDP was arrested on April 14 and by the next day Darboe got news of his death in police custody prompting him to convene a press conference to state his position. His decision was to walk, unarmed to the nearest police station to demand the body of the gentleman. Solo, in the first place led a group of youths to Westfield junction in the centre of the Greater Banjul Area on that fateful day to protest the discriminatory and harsh electoral laws and the appalling governance situation in the country. From there, he and his colleagues were brutally repressed and arrested, and for him, never to return home to his family again.

In the entire period of the trial during the past four months many more people were arrested and detained in various parts of the country for merely attending court cases and to show solidarity with Darboe and colleagues. Many of those arrested and detained were subjected to torture as their testimonies in court showed. During the trial, the judge created various constraints to the point that the team of seasoned lawyers defending Darboe and Co had to march out of the court and leaving the illegally accused to defend themselves. Even this did not humble down the trial judge to observe the rule of law, rather he continued to disregard basic procedures. For example, on many occasions the defence lawyers and Darboe himself asked for proceedings to stop at the High Court as there was a submission they made to the Supreme Court to question the constitutionality of some charges. This is simply because the High Court, being a subordinate to the Supreme Court cannot continue to deal with a matter that is referred to the Supreme Court which is a more superior court and yet to decide on that matter. But the judge, Eunice Dada did not relent, but continued to disregard the rule of law. Earlier, it was the Court of Appeal presided over by a three-judge panel, namely Justices A. Adegoke, Edrissa Fafa M’bai and Awa Bah which refused bail to the accused persons after spending already four months in prison including the entire period of Ramadan.

Mr. President, the Gambia is in pain. The difficult scenario unfolding in this tiny West African nation over the years is a direct assault on the sovereignty of the people. When the Gambia gained independence in 1970, it was meant to shed off the yoke of colonialism because the British had seized our humanity. They forced us pay tax which they spent as they wished without our say. They made laws to determine where we can go and what we can do and say in our own land. They created institutions that controlled the resources, wealth and the labour of our people for their benefit alone. But it was our founding fathers, from the legendary pioneer freedom fighter EF Small to IM Garba Jahumpa, Rev. JC Faye, PS Njie and Dawda Jawara and many more in the civil society, as well as the religious and traditional arena together with the masses of our people who stood up to demand that Gambians are human beings with rights and dignity that must be respected. This is how and why we became an independent nation. Independence therefore is about the restoration of our humanity – our human rights and dignity as fully fledged human beings. Independence means self determination that we must rule ourselves according to our own ideas and wishes that we translate into our own laws and institutions. We create our own government to oversee the protection of our rights and our sovereignty to determine our destiny. We elect persons among us as president and parliamentarians and councilors to manage our resources and affairs according to our will, hence democracy and development. This is the reason why we sought independence.

Thus we did not seek independence so that decades later one among us will come around to sit on our heads, and to utilize our wealth and labour and resources anyhow, and interfere in our affairs as he or she wished while we wallow underneath in hardship and misery. We did not seek independence to live in fear in our own land. We did not seek independence to be hurt by our own public officials that we elect, employ and pay. We did not create a state so that it becomes a predator that consumes us, one by one.

The peaceful protest led by Solo Sandeng is a demonstration of sovereignty. To protest is an entrenched clause in our constitution in Section 25d, that all Gambians have a right to assemble and demonstrate peacefully and without the use of arms. The action by Ousainou Darboe is a demonstration of sovereignty because the police is a state institution responsible for the protection of our rights and lives. Hence the police is a legitimate destination to find out about any incident surrounding any individual in the Gambia, more so if it was the police themselves that arrested a citizen. In Section 17 of our constitution, the primary obligation is placed on the Executive and its agencies to protect all of our fundamental rights and freedoms which are the basis of our sovereignty. Thus the Office of the President and the police as its agency should have protected Solo to protest, and allow Ousainou to ask. In Section 17, the supreme law further places an obligation on the National Assembly to protect our fundamental rights and freedoms, but all throughout this act of abuse by the police, the National Assembly kept mute and distanced itself completely. Section 17 further identifies the judiciary as the third arm of the state with the primary obligation to interpret and apply the laws. Again, both the High Court and the Court of Appeal have not only failed to protect the right of these persons to protest and not to be tortured, but the court went further to trample on their rights by denying them bail, fair trial, presumption of innocence and the right to protest and then sentenced them to three years. This is a travesty of justice.

Imagine the case of one of the illegally accused, Fanta Darboe. Here is an innocent lady on holiday from America who happened to be a member of the family of Ousainou. The judge made her a prisoner simply because she did not utter a word in court and therefore she was guilty. Meanwhile in her ruling the judge acknowledged that Fanta and another illegally accused, Yaya Bah were not part of the event. Yet Justice Dada sentenced Fanta because she is a nurse, and acquitted Yaya because he is illiterate. Seriously? How could a fully fledged justice of the law condemn an innocent lady for merely being a nurse and keeping quiet but not part of the crime? These actions by the Gambian State therefore blatantly shows that it is not only Darboe and Co who are imprisoned, but the very sovereignty of each and every Gambian is in prison. By these actions committed by the State, it clearly shows that any Gambian who wishes to exercise his or her sovereign rights under Chapter 4 of our constitution will face similar or worse response from the State which is supposed to protect these rights and freedoms in the first place.

Can we therefore ask the Gambian state what does it wish to achieve by disregarding the sovereignty of Gambians? Is the government creating the environment for the peace and stability of the country, or are is seeking to endanger national security? History has shown that no force on earth can protect any citizen, leader or public officer in any society in which the sovereignty of the people are trampled into the mud. So long as one right is damaged for once and it is not repaired in full immediately then no one’s right and life is save in that society. Otherwise Ghadaffi, Campoare or Mubarak could have protected their rights and life, and not be flushed out by the masses of the people. The leadership of the Gambia must bear in mind that only the respect for human rights and the strict adherence to the rule of law are the only weapons that can ensure national and state security for ever. In the absence of human rights and the rule of law, society drops into a state of nature in which the survival of the fittest becomes the norm. In our lifetime we have witnessed too many regimes and so called strong rulers collapse and melt away like a burning candle simply because they disregarded human rights and the rule of law.

The Gambia has reached a situation where there is urgent need for each and every citizen, more so the various categories of leaderships in the political, social and economic arenas including the academia to raise their voices with words of justice, truth and patriotism. The country has reached a critical juncture when we must put together all of our resources and capacities to pull the nation together to uphold our uniqueness and exceptionalism that only the Gambian and Senegal share in the whole wide world. We are one family. In the Gambia I grew up, we are taught to believe and fear Allah or God; to be honest and hard working; to respect elders and venerate imams and priests. We are taught to be proud and uphold our culture of peace and hospitality and care and share. The Gambia deserves a leadership that should promote and preserve this culture and way of life to further cement the unity of our people.

Gambians, especially our political leaders, on both side of the divide must realize that the country is in pain. The country is in distress. Far too many Gambian families – mothers and fathers and sons and daughters have endured grief and pain at the destruction of their rights and lives by fellow their Gambians who by law have been tasked to protect them. Politics is the process by which people manage their resources and affairs for their wellbeing through a series of laws and institutions. Thus more than anyone, we expect our political leaders – the president as well as the opposition leaders to get out of their cocoons and look at the national interest. I cannot believe that the combination of our opposition leaders and the ruling party lack the intelligence, honesty and patriotism to salvage this country. Any Gambian who does not see that this country is falling off the cliff is either dishonest or ignorant or both. Hence the urgent need to salvage this country is now.

I wish to conclude by calling on Pres. Jammeh to give unconditional pardon to Ousainou Darboe and all those sentenced with him. I wish to further call on him to drop charges on all those undergoing trial and release them to reunite with their families. I wish to call on him to order the release of the body of Solo Sandeng and return to his family, and to investigate all cases of death, torture and rape in custody and bring perpetrators to book. I wish to advise the president that there is no winner in the way the Gambia is going. No one won in Liberia. No one won in Sierra Leone. No one won in Cote d’Ivoire. No one won in Libya. Certainly no one will win in the Gambia as it continues to cruise on that same path on which all those countries were once on and got crushed. Let us cast away our ego and vain pride out of the window and reposition ourselves on the path of reconciliation, truth and patriotism to bring the nation together. The time to save our nation is now.

One day it will not be said that Madi Jobarteh did not play his small part.

For the Gambia, Our Homeland.