The interior minister, Ebrima Mballow, has confirmed the appointment of former Inspector General of Police Yankuba Sonko as the ministry’s adviser on national security.
“Mr Sonko was appointed by Government to advise the ministry on issues of internal security…,” Mballow confirmed to Kerr Fatou.
Sonko was Gambia’s police chief for over a decade.
He was credited with the greatest success stories associated with the Gambia Police Force like their credit union and establishment of the armed wing of the police, PIU.
However, Sonko has also been criticized of complicity in abuses of human rights under the regime of the former autocratic ruler Yahya Jammeh.
Prominent of such were the arrest of Solo Sandeng who later died in state custody by the police in 2016 and the subsequent arrest of executive members of the United Democratic Party.
By Mustapha K Darboe