In its first appearance before our courts, the Indemnity Decree has woefully
failed to carry out the wishes of the Dictatorship. Reports in the
Independent Newspaper showed that Wowo (the same prosecutor that was in
charge of the Dumo Case) failed to have the Sabally Case stricken out on the
basis of the Indemnity Decree.

But at best, this is a short-lived victory for the Opposition and
law-abiding and peace-loving Gambians. The government suffered a setback NOT
because the courts think that this Decree is a repugnant law and has no
place in our law books. The setback the government suffered was due to a
legal technicality. Litigants CANNOT rely on facts/statutes they did NOT
mention in their pleadings (documents they filed in court). When our illegal
government filed their pleadings in this case, the infamous Decree was not
in our books. Consequently, it was never pleaded.

The reason I said that this 'victory' is short-lived is that our laws also
allow for litigants to amend their pleadings. If we had REAL prosecutors at
the AG Chambers, they would have amended their pleadings (to incorporate the
Decree) BEFORE coming to court to rely on this Decree. Because the Chambers
is populated with people that do not know what they are doing; people that
will lose a case as easy to prove as the Ebrima Barry case, it was not
surprising to me that they went to court unprepared.

The Opposition should not sit on its laurels vis-a-vis this Decree. The
fight against the Decree should be fought in the streets and not in court.
In court, the deck has already been stacked against the people. Like all
anarchists, the government changed the goal post in the middle of the game.
The Sabally Case was rigged as soon as the Indemnity Decree was signed and
back-dated by Yaya. Now all Wowo needs to do is to go and amend his
pleadings and come back to face an impotent judge.

It is telling that the government that goes around trying to tell the
Gambian public and the international community that the Indemnity Decree is
not about the APRIL MASSACRE, goes to court and wave the Decree in front of
a judge hearing a case emanating from the April Massacre. Who were these
morons fooling when they said that the Decree is not about 'indemnifying'
the criminals that murdered our children? Just as I predicted, Joseph Joof
and his green lawyers will use this Decree to thwart the wheels of justice.
As predicted also, the first victim of this draconian Decree in a court of
law is none other than Joseph Joof's sister-in-law. Joof will not hesitate
to unleash his own prosecutors against his family members. Joof is party to
the atrocity being committed against his own family. Government thugs beat
up his own family and now he is helping the government to escape the rap.
Shame on the government that will slaughter innocent and defenseless
children and then pass a law to insulate the perpetrators of that heinous
crime. Now the whole world knows that the Indemnity Decree was actually
passed to protect the thugs that massacred our children.
KB

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