"It has been more than 100 days since Dumo, Lalo, Yabo and others
were abducted on June 24, 2000." This was how I opened my mail I sent to G_L
October 5, 2000. As of today, these innocent citizens have been incarcerated
for more than seven months now. I say that they are innocent because the law
in the country says so. We all know that every man is 'innocent until proven
guilty.'
But let us put that legal maxim aside because we also know that lawlessness
is the order of the day back home. The main purpose of my mail today is to
encourage the people involved in this case (families and lawyers of the
accused persons) to take on Joseph Joof. We all know that this case got this
far because of the corruption and vindictiveness of Pap Cheyassin Secka. He
abused his position as Attorney General to hoodwink an inexperienced and
inept magistrate (Roche) to unlawfully jail these people. The only thing the
state has going for it, is the lies concocted by Foday Barry and the blatant
abuse of authority by Yaya and Secka.
It is time to see what Joseph Joof is made up of. I respectfully urge Dumo's
wife to do what she did with Secka and send a letter to Joseph Joof. Again,
we might not get what we want from Joof. But as we said before, our
unjustified losses will show the whole world how brutal this regime is. All
we ask Joseph Joof and Yaya is for them to bring the evidence they have to
court and prove that the accused persons are guilty. This is the most basic
and fundamental human right a citizen should enjoy in his or her country.
Dumo et al have obviously been denied of that right.
These are the basic truths about our country that all decent folks should
grasp. It is mind-boggling to have the Johnny Fords of this world and people
like the British High Commissioner in The Gambia know about these facts, and
still turn around and pretend that life in The Gambia is normal and people
are free and happy. This just shows that deep inside the Fords of these
world, they believe that Gambians deserve worst than Yaya. We deserve an
uncouth, inexperienced, corrupt and callous moron that would eliminate
anyone that dare raise a dissenting voice to his 'development efforts'.
Well, we have to let all of them know that we certainly deserve better than
Yaya and his coward cohorts. Basic human rights are non-existent in The
Gambia. On the one hand, we have criminals that committed the brutal
massacre of our children, roaming the streets of Banjul scot-free. There is
undeniable evidence about the culpability of people like Baboucarr Jatta,
Ousman Badgie, Sankung Badgie, Baba Jobe and Isatou Njie-Saidy. Yet none of
these criminals have been interrogated, arrested, charged or jailed for the
murder of our children. On the other hand, you have innocent citizens that
were falsely accused, abducted and unlawfully jailed for more than seven
months. If this is not lawlessness, then I do not know what is.
As I said before, these people have been charged with the weakest offenses
in the book; attempt and conspiracy to commit a crime. On the other hand, we
have government functionaries we can charge with full offenses and we have
evidence, in the form of the dead bodies of our children, to prove that
these functionaries are guilty of their crimes. I will challenge Joseph Joof
like I challenged Pap Cheyassin Secka, to show us the evidence they got.
Where is the tape recording Foday Barry was talking about? There is no
credible evidence linking these accused persons to an enterprise to
overthrow Yaya. The government had seven months to investigate these
offenses. They had kept the accused persons incommunicado for more than four
months. They have harassed numerous friends of the accused in order to get
evidence against these innocent citizens. And yet pathological liars like
Foday Barry, Sankung Badgie and Pap Cheyassin Secka, came out empty handed.
Joseph Joof will also come out empty handed if he attempts to perpetuate
this fraud. We know Yaya's real motivation for cooking up this coup plot.
There was absolutely no coup attempt. This is all a ploy to cover up the
April massacre. Contrary to lies made up by Foday Barry, the only tape
recording in this case should show that Yaya ordered his security forces on
April 10 to murder our children. But because of the corruption of people
like Sankung Badgie, Gambians might never hear how their so-called leader
callously and cowardly ordered the massacre of innocent children. Look
closely at the people that are accused of this plot to overthrow Yaya. You
will notice the connection to the April massacre and the phone call Yaya
engaged in from Cuba. That is what this case is about. That is why the
government does not want to take this case to court. They just want to
continue this illegal incarceration and cover up.
We should not allow them to do that. We should force Joseph Joof to show up
in court and try this case in the open. I will be shocked if Joseph Joof
will show some integrity and do what is right here. Joseph Joof is already a
part of a government decision to exonerate the murderers of our children.
What kind of man will sit in a Commission that found that certain criminals
murdered our children and then turn around and be party to a decision not to
prosecute those murderers. This just goes to show that this man has no
balls. Their lies cannot stand up in court. If Foday Barry comes to court
and lie under oath, he would just be putting another nail in his coffin. We
will catch up with him.
Finally, I urge the defense team to pounce on Joseph Joof and make him take
a position on this lawlessness. We encourage the lawyers to remain vigilant.
Their clients will be vindicated. The law is not on the side of the
government. Sooner or later, they will be defeated, disgraced and punished.
KB
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