FIVE SENIOR OFFICERS DISMISSED!!

As Jammeh Is Displeased With Police Panel Investigations Report

By Staff Reporter Malang Jammeh & Pa Nderry M’Bai

Email: panderrymbai@gmail.com

                                                Tel: 919-749-6319

In what appeared to be President Yahya Jammeh’s latest purging of the country’s Police Force, five senior police officials have been dismissed with immediate effect, highly placed sources in the in heart of the Jammeh administration told the Freedom Newspaper today.  Superintendent Ebrima Manneh, officer commanding the anti fraud division, Superintendent Saikou Jadama, officer commanding, the Serious Crime Unit, and three other senior officials of the Force have had their services with the force prematurely terminated. One of the affected officers is a lady Assistant Superintendent of police, known as (ASP), our sources said.

The decision to fire these officers emanated from the President’s office—channeled through the Personal Management Office (PMO), and who informed the police command in Banjul that those mentioned herein were dismissed with immediate effect, said dependable sources within the President’s office.

While the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of the five officers are unclear, reports have it that the  force’s top brass were part of a panel to investigate a given case, but for some reasons the head of state Mr. Jammeh was displeased with the outcome of the investigations—thereby ordering for their immediate dismissal, sources intimated.  The panel provided an investigative report, or opinion on the matter in question, which never went down well with the relevant authorities in Banjul, our source added.

According to our source, the officers received their sacking letters last week, from the Inspector General of police Yankuba Sonko, who told them that the decision to terminate their services emanated from the (PMO), which oversees the activities of the Civil Service.

The dismissed police officers had longstanding services with the Force, and their removal would no doubt impact negatively on their lives and families in particular, because they are sole breadwinners of their respective families, said our source.

Sources within the Presidency say they were not surprised by the President’s move to let go the officers because as one of the sources put it “ One has to lie or falsify reports to satisfy the President, or the authorities that be.  In this country, there is no independent investigative panel. You either report in favor of the President and his Government, or you might risked being sacked, or imprisoned. These officers are victims of state persecution. The President instructed for their sacking, and not the (PMO) or IGP Sonko.  One could read “shock” and sadness in the face of IGP Sonko while he served the sacking letters to his comrades.  This is the type of Gambia, we are living in. There is no justice in this country,” said our source who is very familiar with the case.

           Reinstatements in The Force

Meanwhile, out of the 118  police officers dismissed by the former police chief Essa Badjie, on corruption related allegations, eleven of them had been reinstated according to sources reaching this paper. The men were accused of receiving bribes from so called Guinean truck drivers, following an undercover operations mounted by the then police boss Mr. Badjie, who assigned police recruits to handover monies to different checkpoint officers across the country.

The police command under the leadership of Yankuba Sonko reviewed the case files of the affected officers and ordered for their reinstatement sources said.  Some sisters forces such as the Immigration Department and Customs and Exercise Department refused to sack their men in the heels of the investigations on the grounds that the anti corruption investigations led by former IGP Badjie was a “setup” against the hardworking members of the force. They never heeded to pressure from Badjie to sack their affected unit members.