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Police spokesman accused of concealing news from journalists
Thursday, 14 April 2011 00:33
JollofNews - The Public Relations Officer of The Gambia Police Force, Assistant Superintendent Yerro Mballow, is
under fire, accused by journalists of deliberately concealing information in favor of the police and Gambian president, Yahya Jammeh.Well placed sources alleged that ASP Mballow is acting as part of a bigger plot hatched by President Jammeh who vehemently warned all the spokespersons of the country’s security agencies against confirming to journalists stories he (Jammeh) considers as security sensitive.
Last month President Jammeh denied that his government was in the habit of preventing civil servants from talking to the press.
Jammeh was addressing newspaper owners in an inconclusive meeting that also heard him defended his decision to refuse the private media’s access to official news releases or attendance of national functions.
“My government has no law that public officials are not supposed to talk to the press,” the president told media chiefs gathered at State House in Banjul, last month.
“I want to be very very clear,” he stressed, “when you ask anybody and they tell you we are not supposed to talk, ask that person to put it into writing and sign it and ask the person who does not allow you to talk to the press.”
But a source who spoke to this reporter described the president’s statement then as “merely fake”, and aimed at refining his almost matchless appalling international image among notorious anti press figures.
The whereabouts of one of eight convicted coup plotters sentenced to death last year, Lebanese businessman Youssuf Ezzeedine, remains an example of President Yahya Jammeh’s insincere treatment of the Gambian public and media.
Ezzeedine was sentenced together with seven co-conspirators, including former chief of defense staff of the Gambian army, Lt. General Lang Tombong Tamba. But the Lebanese man’s continued absence from court remains the subject of strong speculation mostly spoken about openly outside the country. No one, including the defense counsel of the convict, appears to know where Ezzeedine is.
There have been unconfirmed reports that Mr Ezzeedine had been released following clandestine payment allegedly involving President Jammeh himself and representatives of the convicted Lebanese man. As customer with the Gambian government, it continues to give deaf ears to queries about this matter, thus fueling speculations that tend to diminish the significance of the case.
The opposition Forayaa Newspaper has since been involved in efforts to unearth the actual story behind Ezzeedine’s disappearance. The newspaper once contacted Minister of Interior Ousman Sonko about his whereabouts, but the minister reportedly referred them to his Permanent Secretary, who, in turn, categorically denied any knowledge of Ezzeedine’s case, arguing that the Interior ministry was not responsible for a prisoner who had already been convicted by the court.
That left the Prison Department, one of the most secretive in the whole world, as the most appropriate point of reference. But by virtue of its secrecy, it is a no-go area either.
Police PRO Mballow’s constant reluctance to cooperate with journalists on this and many other similar matters appears to be the most unbearable, but hardly without some explanation.
Apparently confiding in this reporter, PRO Assistant Superintendent Mballow stated:
"You see, my brother, we are all brothers. You should understand how the system operates in the Gambia. We are all dedicated to our works. Everybody knows about that. But nobody is independent in your work in the Gambia.”
PRO Mballow swore that his wish was that any journalist who came for information would get his best “if there is anything fit for publication.” But, he added, this is different situation.
“We should all understand that. If I am sacked today from my work who will be there to take care of my family? Nobody! They will suffer before I catch up another work…,” he argued.
The police PRO implied that this is mostly among the reasons why his predecessors have had problems, some of whom were transferred apparently as a punishment for confirming “something which he was not sure of.”
ASP Mballow would later promise to call this reporter on meeting with the Crime Management Coordinator. But the police spokesman failed to keep his side of the agreement. And when the reporter called him back, he handed his phone to a third party who claimed that it was a wrong number - a clear indication of the Police spokesman refusing to talk.
Written by By Doudu Smith
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Comments
This is one aspect a tyrant and crook leader does to a country and its civil service. It is destructive to any society that want have an effective and efficient civil service and development.
Simply because it grows a culture that to be a civil servant is to serve your personnel interest rather helping your people. What this police officer said is what every civil servant in Gambia knows that is what will happen to them if they bring ethic and integrity in their work.
Comment
These are the facts on ground as all of us know, realistically, news relayed are determined by the murderous-infidel-sheikh @ kanilai; It’s no offence to keep employed & feed family, be lucky enough to be alive & saw to yaya’s demise, BUT blinded culprits who continue to play to yaya’s lunatic dictates, harassing, maiming & murdering people WILL be prosecuted along with yaya; history’s in record.
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