WE THE DISOBEDIENT SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF OUR BELOVED GAMBIA, HEREBY DECLARE YAYA JAMMEH WANTED FOR TREASON, MURDER, RAPE, PLUNDER AND PILLAGE. A WARRANT FOR HIS ARREST IS HEREBY MADE PUBLIC.
As dysfunctional as it is, the Jammeh regime nevertheless operates as a neocolonial state with all its repressive apparatus unleashed in a dragnet of terror, subsequent to the December 30, 2014 alleged coup attempt.
As always, the right arm of the state; the army and police which represent the first line of resistance to our freedom, are unleashed to entrench the dragnet of terror such as massive arrests, detention without trial, heinous – barbaric torture and outright murders.
As tyrants and their regimes rapidly decompose, the tendency is to fill the prisons and detention dungeons to intimidate all forms of resistance. And even as the prisons and detentions dungeons are bursting at the seams, Jammeh is still insecure with his beefed – up “national security”. The sprawling military and police check points all over major towns are additional signs of the rot spreading within the regime. It will either implode or explode; either option is acceptable to the vast majority of us.
Following his disastrous “diplomatic” efforts to win international sympathy and support by calling the attempted coup a “terrorist attack”, Jammeh throws his trademark temper tantrum by arresting family members of the alleged plotters including a 13 year old child, Yusupha Lowe and an elderly mother who had nothing whatsoever to do with this attempt to over throw his illegitimate regime.
As a result of his diplomatic failures to have the escaped coup plotters extradited to be slaughtered by his drugged – deranged killers and the bail release granted to Papa Faal, Cherno Njie and Alhagie Barrow by the U.S courts, Jammeh engages his court system into full throttle to console his bruised ego.
THE COURTS ARE HIGHEST EXPRESSION OF POLITICAL POWER
Our nation’s “house of justice” has become a den of mercenary judges commonly from Nigeria, Ghana and Pakistan. As the left arm of the state, the judiciary has been bought and sold to bedevil the lives of Gambians at the directives of Jammeh. It is the same court that legitimized the AFPRC-APRC military regime and sanitized it into a “democratically elected government” following the July 1994 overthrow of the People’s Progressive Party which notwithstanding all its contradictions was indeed elected by the people.
As insulting as Jammeh’s total disregard for “law” is to the Gambia Bar Association and the pain inflicted onto the victims railroaded by these mercenary judges, the Gambia Bar Association has adapted to the “law according to Yaya”. This blatant reversal of the dictum of justice: “guilty until proven innocent” as oppose to “innocent until proven guilty” is what makes these mercenary judges equally deadly as the gun slinging mercenaries. This reversal of the dictum of justice was imposed at gun point along the 20 years trail, littered with the lowest scums of the “law according to Yaya”.
Within this den of mercenary judges, I was convinced that the former “Justice” M.A. Paul, if you recall, topped the list of Jammeh’s henchmen that send civilians and soldiers alike to long prison terms as a deterrent to resistance against the terrorist regime. But this “Johnny just come” to the bench “Justice” Semeone Ateh Abi out performed M.A. Paul and I might add “Justice” Wowo.
“Justice” Abi handed down 8 unconstitutional counts against the accused as dictated by the “law according to Yaya”. In my view, there exists no such document as a constitution in the Gambia. But the ‘toilet paper constitution” that Jammeh and his mercenary judges make reference to at will, clearly exposes the illegality of the process, the 8 counts and worst the verdicts of death and life in prison.
Let’s put this in context. If there was any semblance of “law” in the Gambia, the document that defends the law, known as a “constitution” states in section 18, subsection2, that the death penalty can only be handed down when another life is lost. To this date, there is no indication that any member of the Gambia Arm Forces (GAF) lost his life in the December 30, 2014 attempted coup. In this same document, the Armed Forces Act on sections 96 and 127 has been grossly violated by these “kangaroo courts” just to set an example for the rest of the soldiers.
Prominent railroaded court cases continue to clog the rotten to the core judicial system.
Lamin Waa Juwara, a two year trial on bogus charges the state can’t defend.
Imam Baa Kawsu (absconded) after subjected to the delaying tactics of the mercenary courts
Sheriff Muheddin Hydara, defied Jammeh on the issue of when to pray after the month of Ramadan.
Several others, including Mambury Njie (under heavy guard at his hospital bed) charged with “economic crimes” – the newly invented charge by the “law according to Yaya”, are clear indications of the cracking “pillars of justice”. These defendants continue to be subjected to the most insidious delaying tactics of adjournments to inflict mental torment by literally chaining them to the court rooms at Jammeh’s directives. The “judiciary” in the Gambia is pillar less, resting squarely on the hands of the mercenary judges.
There is an undeniable contest between the “law according to Yaya” and the document reduced to the function of toilet paper, even though it’s still referred to as the “constitution”. No contest can last forever; one side must triumph over the other. In our case, this contest has been festering for 20 God damn years. Gambia cannot coexist with Jammeh. So, who will win this contest?
All signs and evidence points to our triumph – the people’s victory! Recent actions of defiance by the opposition party, United Democratic Party (UDP) against the restrictions to assemble and of their movements across the country is a starting point for a ground swell uprising. But it must be stirred in the right direction for revolutionary changes. There must be a ground swell of resistance beyond seeking for a permit to assemble when the regime can assemble anywhere and anytime to further its political agenda. The “law according to Yaya” must be vigorously challenged at a mass level. The 20 years of tyranny has turned our beloved Gambia into a powder keg. And wherever there is a powder keg, the spark is never too far.
No amount of meaningless PEACE bickering will turn us around. Those who truly desire lasting PEACE must fight for FREEDOM!
#Jammeh must go! Down with neocolonialism! Victory is ours!
