The director general of State Intelligence Service has said the government remains committing to building an intelligence agency that is accepted by all Gambians.
“Today part of our reforms is to have the public institution in the name of the SIS that is accepted, that is trusted, that is recognize, that is not scary to the people, that is commanding the confidence of the people,” Ousman Sowe told journalists at a press conference held at the SIS headquarters in Banjul on Friday.
State Intelligence Service once named National Intelligence Agency is the intelligence agency of The Gambia responsible for gathering intelligence. However, the agency has a distressed past due to its complicity in the atrocities committed by the immediate past government. The government of President Adama Barrow has promised to rehabilitate the agency.
Mr Sowe said: “[Our objective is] to have an intelligence service of national character, an intelligent service that everyone can look at and say, ‘yes, that is state intelligence’. [An intelligence agency] that is devoid of tribe, is devoid of biases, is devoid of nepotism, is devoid of all those ills that are unhelpful…”
According to him, the agency has come up with a new mantra, ‘no more excesses.’
“Our task is to reform restructure, reshape, reengineer and reposition the intelligence service in helping and meeting the national security needs of this country both home and abroad,” he said.
