Yus,

What Ngum is getting from us he duly deserves. I was never objecting to him highlighting whatever wrongs Chongan may have done whilst he occupied public office. Hey, let's be real here: Anyone who occupies public office and was found to have violated the codes of conduct that moderate individual responsibility behaviour in public life, is a fair game here. This, most certainly, was not what Ngum had in mind. When Ngum enumerated all his charges against Chongan, he concluded by saying that Chongan is a "worst monster" than those who ACTUALLY TORTURED him and else! This is the bane of my objection. Matter fact, the Brother went as far as to call Chongan a murderer, a thug, beast and whatever unsavoury name he can come up with. You expect those who know Chongan well to stay silent whilst he is being vilified by an uncouth nonentity who has a personal grudge to settle? Where's the fairness here?

Let us closely examine this idea that Chongan is a "worst monster" than, say, Jammeh - who has either sanctioned murder or torture. The idea that Chongan can be on the same barbaric wavelength as animals like Jammeh, is not only nonsensical, but can only from the lips of someone totally ignorant about what is happening in the Gambia. For instance, and as Dampha keeps pointing out, when Chongan was a top police officer, there was a similar student demo as the April one. Yet, none lost his life over the incident. Similarly, in all his time as part of the top brass of the police, if Chongan were a torturer and a murderer as they are alleging, he had plenty of game to play with potential subversives against the State in those days. Dampha just highlighted the Baba Jobe case. Did anyone died in the hands of Chongan? Did any get crippled whilst illegally detained by Chongan? Why else didn't the AFPRC parade Chongan before their kangaroo courts if Chongan had been violating grossly h!
uman rights of ordinary citizens
? After all, if they had something serious on him as people are alleging, you can bet your last dime that Chongan would have been hauled before the kangaroo courts. Yet, for all the time he spent in jail as a political prisoner, Chongan was never taken before a court of law.

Never mind the fact that when Chongan held high office, he had a democratic conscience. He would go out of his way by giving permits to PDOIS in instances where it might as well put his job on the line. You don't hear ignorant programmed fanatics saying this. Chongan may not buy the socialist arguments, but he secretly sympathised with the democratic agenda of the PDOIS. Be that as it may, Chongan is by no means an angel; like you and me, he may have or indeed did things in the past that are regrettable. Indeed, it may well be the case that he was guilty of some peccadilloes in his youth, but to suggest that he is a "worst monster" than people who have ACTUALLY TORTURED & MURDERED Gambian citizens is absolute nonsense. What is Ngum now? A frigging shrink? A frigging shrink endowed with faculties well equipped to figure out from minor misdemeanours in past behaviours who is capable of being a potential murderer or a monster? Gimme a break!

As i keep saying, if the object of the current scrutiny limits itself to what they allege as Chongan committing and providing evidence for it, then Chongan like anyone else who has occupied public office before is a fair game. But if all they can come up with is childhood, youthful and private minor misdemeanours as their basis for such outrageous accusations as Chongan being a "worst monster" than his ACTUAL TORTUERS, then what they get from us is well-deserved. Let Ngum allege all he likes, this Brother ain't complaing! But if the charge sheet reads and suggests something that can't be substantiated, and off-the-wall, it becomes a different ball game.

All the best,

Hamjatta Kanteh

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