Renowned Gambian human rights lawyer, who happens to be the country’s main opposition leader, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, has vowed never to defend drug offenders in court.
The opposition leader was reacting to the latest move by the Gambian president, Yahya Jammeh, with whom he hardly see eye-to-eye on almost all matters, who recently sacked almost the entirety of his security chiefs amid rumors of drug offenses.
“I have for the past 18 or 20 years declined to defend anybody who is charged with any offence connected with drug trafficking. Because of my abhorrence for those who are involved in drug trafficking, my abhorrence for those who use drugs. And I think it’s a menace to society and we should do everything possible to get the Gambian society rid of these anti-social people,” Mr Darboe told the Voice of America (VOA).
President Yahya Jammeh last week dismissed the head of the Gambia’s anti-narcotic agency, Ebrima Bun Sanneh, just three days after the sudden dismissal of the country’s police chief, Inspect General Ensa Badjie, once feared and very close ally to the Gambian leader. Both men are presently in custody, alongside dozens of other sacked security heads, among them the former head of the Gambian navy.
In a televised statement last Tuesday, the Gambian president vowed to undo drug dealers, even if it would cost him his life.
Both Jesus, as the former police chief is popularly called, and Sanneh, the former anti-narcotic agency boss, have ever been linked to well known drug dealers in Gambia, even before their ascension to the top of the Gambian police and anti drug establishments. This leaves many observers wondering why the president is only taking this move now.
According to the leader of Gambia’s main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, the country’s security agencies have in fact never been prepared enough to deal with the issue of drug. He vowed that he will continue refusing to defend accused drug traffickers.
Appearing to echoing the president’s call to deal with the problem, the opposition leader said “every Gambian should really give a helping hand in ensuring that those who use the Gambia as a conduit pass for their drug trafficking to Europe and other parts of West Africa are kept out of this country.’’
He added, ‘‘And that will really sanitize our image to make sure that nobody uses this place as a transit point for their illegal drug trafficking.”
Mr Darboe is also calling on political parties to help in the crusade, saying, “I believe all political parties should engage in a mass education of the Gambians to make them aware of the dangers of drug trafficking (and) all the vices about drug trafficking. I think that we should all make it our duty so that we fight the menace of this terrible thing that is happening to our country.”
He also called on the international community to help Gambia’s efforts to deal with the drug trafficking problem.