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Momodou
Denmark
11513 Posts |
 Posted - 11 Oct 2022 : 23:27:38
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The IGP Abdoulie Sanyang is Threatening Democracy and Peace in The Gambia
By Madi Jobarteh
There is no law that requires anyone to have a permit in order to hold a press conference in The Gambia. Therefore citizens do not need any permission from the police to conduct a press conference.
But the police have been calling people who are organizing a press conference tomorrow to question them about that. Why?
Ndeyfatima Jammeh and Nenneh Freda Gomez MP and MC Cham Jr. and others have a right to organize a press conference anywhere in The Gambia and the police should not harass them for that. Rather the police should protect their right to organize that press conference.
By calling these people to the police headquarters tomorrow means the police are doing everything to harass them thereby to stifle citizen participation and undermining democracy and accountability in The Gambia. Good governance and sustainable development cannot be achieved in the absence of citizen participation.
Holding the State accountable requires that citizens stand up and speak up, protest, hold press conferences, go to court, write letters, and do boycotts among many other actions. Hence the police must remove itself out of the path of citizens who are exercising their democratic rights. The Gambia cannot be a well governed and peaceful society so long as the police continue to interfere with democratic rights and freedoms.
The IGP must be told therefore to hold back from creating a police state in this country. His acts of harassment of citizens is already too much to bear. The IGP is endangering the peace and stability of this country by clamping down on fundamental rights and freedoms.
As the chief law enforcer the IGP is supposed to protect and not damage human rights that are guaranteed in the Constitution. The IGP is not a political position and he is not answerable to the President. The IGP is an independent position whose terms of reference are spelt out in the Police Act.
Therefore the IGP must be told to stop his acts of abuse and violence against citizens. The job of the police is not to defend the Government against citizens. citizens who wish to hold the Government through a press conference do not need any police interference. So let IGP Abdoulie Sanyang stop suppressing citizens in defense of The Gambia Government.
If this country returns to dictatorship once again the IGP and The Gambia Police Force must be held responsible. Since 2017, The Gambia Police Force has refused to accept democracy and protect rights. Rather they have used every means to stifle the exercise of human rights and democracy in this country.
Speak up Gambians against the undemocratic, dictatorial and violent methods of The Gambia Police Force.
For The Gambia Our Homeland
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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The IGP Abdoulie Sanyang is Threatening Democracy
