MIXED SIGNALS FROM THE POLICE

Banjul

"Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere" - Martin Luther King Jr

Many people in this country were no doubt taken aback by the recent
contradictory remarks emanating from the police regarding whether or not
they should apologise to Ousainou Darboe, the leader of the United
Democratic Party and a senior lawyer over a raid carried out by the police
on his law chambers. While the former Police Public Relations Officer Pa
Amady Jallow tendered an apology to Mr. Darboe on behalf of the Inspector
General of Police, describing the raid as a mistake, that statement was
contradicted a few days later by the Crime Management Coordinator Abu Njie,
who in a public rebuttal in The Point newspaper said the raid was indeed
intended for Mr. Darboe's law chambers and that his men had no intention of
apologizing for it.

While indeed everyone seems to have appreciated the apology as a sign of
maturity on the part of the police, many people were also quite
disappointed when the CMC came up with his own rebuttal. That was what
eventually led to the decision of PRO Jallow to step down as PRO,
apparently because his position as the official spokesperson of the police
has been compromised by such contradictory remarks from a senior police
officer. Indeed everyone had expected that whatever the PRO said was a
reflection of the official position of the police on any particular issue.
Therefore, protocol demands that if any senior officer like CMC Njie had
any reservations on it, he should have discussed it with the IGP rather
than making his own public rebuttal, at least to prevent the washing of
their dirty linen in public.

While I agree with CMC Njie that Ousainou Darboe is not above the law and
that it is not out of place to search his chambers or even his
privateresidence when there is enough reason to believe that something
illegal is going on there, but as an opposition leader, he deserves to be
handled with caution, if not for anything, but it can be easily given some
political connotation. While no one is suggesting that he or any other
opposition leader should be behave any how they like with impunity, but
like every other party leader in this country, Mr. Darboe is like a head of
state in waiting and as such, he deserves to be treated with special
respect reserved for our leadership.

While it is possible that CMC Njie's men who conducted the search on Mr.
Darboe's chambers did so with ingenuity, but the allegations that they also
took liberty to read the personal files of his clients and even attempted
to take away somepolitical correspondence which had absolutely no
connection with what they were purportedly looking for, appeared to
indicate an ulterior motive for the search other than just looking for
illegal drugs as they indicated. Under the circumstances therefore, it was
quite in order to apologise to Mr. Darboe. Indeed the decision by the PRO
to step down after the incident seems to have attracted quite a lot of
sympathies for him, both from the members of the public and even his own
colleagues in the force. "Under the circumstances, that was the only
credible thing for him to do, and if I were in his position, I would have
done exactly the same thing," remarked a senior police officer. The apology
to Mr. Darboe was seen by some people as a clever attempt at
damage-limitation by the IGP and therefore, the rebuttal by CMC Njie was
seen as unfortunate.

The incident seems to have attracted quite sympathy and appreciation for
both the former PRO and the IGP for their bold and unusual decision to
accept, at least for once that the police made a mistake and apologized.

However, on the other hand, hardly anyone sympathized with the position
taken by CMC Njie.

This incident has once again brought to the fore the role of the police as
a public service institution. What people like CMC Njie need to understand
is that the police, like all other public service institutions should try
as much as possible to demonstrate political neutrality.

Therefore, such an unprecedented search on Ousainou Darboe's premises and
the provocative manner it was allegedly carried out could have been easily
interpreted to have been politically motivated. Therefore, the apology
seems to have been a well-calculated attempt by the IGP to limit the
repercussions, which CMC Njie did not seem to fully grasp.