It is now clear that The Gambia Police Force is a threat to the peace and stability of this country. The evidence is glaring. Since 2017, the instances of arbitrary arrest, detention, bogus charges, and police brutality have become unbearable!
A basic tenet of law enforcement and the rule of law is impartiality. Without impartial enforcement of the law, the police run the risk of losing not only its credibility and public trust but also loses the cooperation of the public. Therefore by engaging in selective justice, the IGP is telling Gambians that he is not serving the Republic and her citizens according to law but he is under the control of a select few to serve their selfish interests.
This arrest and detention of Borry Touray are not only illegitimate but also a violation of the Constitution.
It is illegitimate because well before Borry, several ministers and NPP supporters openly spewed incitement to violence yet the IGP ignored them. Is it cowardice or dishonesty or both that the IGP looked the other way? Who is controlling the IGP? Whose interest is the IGP serving?
The arrest is also unconstitutional on account of its illegitimacy because Section 19 prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention. If 2 people commit the same crime in the same circumstances then both of them must be arrested. But if one is arrested and the other ignored, then such arrest is arbitrary as it is no more guided by law but by the whims and captives of the arresting person. Borry’s arrest and detention are therefore illegitimate and unconstitutional.
By that same account, his arrest is furthermore unconstitutional on account of Section 33 which states that all persons are equal before the law. But in this case, the IGP is saying that Borry Touray and Demba Sabally are not equal before the law. Demba Sabally openly called for bloodshed in defense of Barrow which tantamount to incitement to violence. But he has not been arrested under the law. Yet the same IGP arrests Borry for the same offense of incitement to violence. The IGP has therefore turned the Gambia into an animal farm where some citizens are more equal than others.
It would be difficult to say that the IGP lacks courage and conviction but all indications are that he is sidelining the law by selectively applying it in a manner that exposes discrimination and unfair treatment. By so doing, he is severely undermining the integrity of not only the police as an institution but also discrediting the reputation of each and every police officer in the eyes of the citizens. This is tragic.
Yet, the IGP is making a grave mistake. What he is demonstrating is that he is the New Jungler in Town. A police officer is not only a human rights protector but also a dispenser of justice and a guardian of the weak against the strong. To therefore have an IGP who violates the law, infringes rights, and assaults the powerless just to protect the powerful is indeed the definition of a Jungler!
Seedy Muctarr Touray will have his name in history like everyone else. In the pages of that history book, it will be stated that here was a man who failed to uphold the law and protect citizens but betrayed the Republic, trampled upon the Constitution and ravaged the rights and dignity of citizens.
Time will tell!
