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Gambia ex-police Chief Sentenced to Life in Prison
Friday, 29 July 2011 15:48
(AFP) - Gambia’s special criminal court on Friday sentenced the country’s former police chief to life in prison
for armed robbery, corruption, and a host of other charges.Ensa Badjie, who is also on trial for 51 separate charges of drug trafficking, corruption and theft, was jailed alongside a senior prison officer who was given a three years jail term for "conspiring with Ensa Badjie to aid prisoners to escape."
In May 2010 the former police chief was accused of conspiring with prison officers "to break into and rob shops, banks and supermarkets" between 2007 and 2009.
Badjie had been fired and arrested in February 2010 along with former navy chief Sarjo Fofona, and former head of the national drug agency Ebrima Bun Sanneh in a swoop believed to be linked to drug trafficking.
That trial is still ongoing.
Eight of the country's top brass, including former army and intelligence chiefs, were sentenced to death last July for treason for an alleged bid to overthrow the government of Yahya Jammeh, who himself seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994.
Jammeh is said to rule the tiny country, nestled within Senegal, with an iron fist and regularly reshuffles his cabinet in what observers say is a bid to prevent a rival base forming.
Rights bodies regularly denounce a climate of fear in the country, accusing Jammeh's regime of muzzling journalists, arbitrary arrests and other abuses.
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Comments
Ensa Badjie's downfall is being greeted with a mixture of emotions,and understandably so.
Whilst some are saddened (such as friends & families),other s have cause to jubilate for various reasons.
Personally,I am neither sad nor jubilant, but very concerned about our legal system.
People that serve Jammeh in his senseless drive to deprive Gambians of their rights & freedoms, have only themselves to blame when the tables are turned on them.
What concerns me is the type of evidence that was used to send this man to jail for life.
It seems the state relied mainly on the testimony of witnesses,some of whom are convicted drug dealers/robbers,without any FORENSIC EVIDENCE linking Mr Badjie to ARMED ROBBERY or PRISONER ESCAPE SCHEMES,to find him guilty.
And we've seen that in the General Tamba's case.
When you have a greedy,corrupt and uneducated loser at the top, what kind of characters do you think he would attract around himself? Thus we see the constant attempts at shedding all that garbage clinging on to him, but just like a magnet, these same low lifes are pulled right back into the system and the whole rotten cycle starts all over again (hiring and firing the same old people again and again).
This calls for a complete overhaul of the whole rotten structure, otherwise we will be building more prisons to accomodate Jammeh's every expanding ego, not to mention paranoia.
I admire the people of GUINEA CONAKRY because they had a lucky escape from that man called Dadis Camara! But, it was due mainly to the fact that they took matters into their own hands and did not allow the blood of their children to go in vain like we did with our children on April 11th.
Comment
Ensa said he was “on yaya jammeh’s errands” on drug related crimes alleged on his person; Ensa won’t dare say this if he isn’t sure; is it a case of big fishes eating smaller fishes? However, one thing’s clear; “supper with the devil, pay the price twice”. God willing, the chief drug dealer & national coffer robber & aide/s in crimes, will end the kangaroo shows of trials up themselves in real judicial prosecutions.
From The Gambia's Hero to Gambia's Zero!
I last met him (Jesus) at the Shell Station in June 2008 by then I was coming from the back door of the state house standing in that scorching sun controling the traffic like a Police constable. Maybe those things make him to be the then ever best Inspector we got in Kambi Bolong !
In the service of SeneGamBissau I remain
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