By Yanks Darboe
How did these two camps come to miss the real problem so much that they are wasting their much precious energies fighting each other rather than the real problem?
Bob Keita camp are mad because they believe or allege that Sainabou had influenced the criminal Justice System of The Gambia to punish Bob Keita by unlawfully detaining him for charges he has never committed. Sainabou’s camp believes that her detention is the product of a witch hunt by Bob Keita’s camp, whose undue coercive pressures had compelled our criminal justice system to detain her for charges she had never committed.
Unfortunately, these two camps have identified the real problem, but instead of seeing that as the problem, they see each other as the problem. The real problem they both identified is our criminal justice system, which worships or bows or bends to whoever has the power to influence it.
I mean what kind of criminal justice system operates like that in the democratic world, which swings between the opposing parties just to suit whoever cares to bother. Surely, here lies the problem, because an impartial criminal justice system bends to no one, but maintains impartiality and neutrality between the parties.
Thus, I believe the solution ought to be both camps seeking for a change of our criminal justice system and not throwing stones at each other with the problematic criminal justice system spectating. It does not solve the problem at all!
We need our system fixed and fixed asap! I will suggest that the first thing we need to campaign for asap is to force the government to appoint a Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), as enshrined in our constitution. That DPP should take over all prosecutorial matters in the country and not continue to have it defaulted on the Attorney General, who shares political table with the President and his political stooges and cabinet appointees.
We need a DPP now and we need it asap! We want our DPP to be an outstanding Gambian Lawyer of many years of experience and of reputable character to shake things in our criminal justice system to win back public confidence in the system.
We do not want the continuation of the current status quo of Barrow and his Minister of Justice dictating who should be prosecuted and for what, or the police IGP and his team at the Police Headquarters. That should be the job of the DPP, who will take an oath to prosecute where there is sufficient evidence and drop charges where there is not sufficient evidence and be able to resist political pressures.
I hope and wish that both the Bob Keita Camp and Sainabou’s camp will join in that campaign asap to ensure that we achieve a change of the status quo!!!!
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