To;

The High Commissioner

Nigerian High Commission

9 Northumberland Avenue

London, WC2N 5BX

Trafalgar Square

15^th April 2010

Your Excellency,

Your Citizens are Complacent in the Muzzling of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms in the Gambia

I am writing on behalf of the United Democratic Party [UK] and the Coalition of Human Rights Gambia, a none for profit organisations based here in the United Kingdom whose primary objective is to promote and safeguard human rights and political freedom in the Gambia and to help engender meaningful democratic political reforms through peaceful and lawful means. The United Democratic Party [UK] is an affiliated body to the Gambia’s main opposition United Democratic Party.

The United Democratic Party [UK] and the Coalition of Human Rights Gambia condemn the recent conviction and the extremely harsh sentencing of Mr. Femi Peters, the Campaign Manager of the United Democratic Party [UDP], to one year imprisonment without an option of a fine, on charges of organising a political rally and using a public address system without a permit. We are also appalled by the unorthodox and undesirable conduct of the two Nigerian Magistrates, Magistrates Emmanuel Nkea and Joseph Ikpala, who were involved in the case.

Mr. Peters was arrested on the 25^th October 2009. Prior to his arrest, the UDP had applied for a permit to use public address system in their rallies but this was refused without any reason being given. The UDP considered the refusal to be an exercise of an unlawful authority on the part of the Inspector-General of Police and decided to hold a rally on the 24^th October 2009.

The Gambian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms to every citizen. This includes the right to fair trial and freedoms of speech, association and assembly. The 2006 Commonwealth brokered Memorandum of Understanding which was signed by all political parties in the Gambia, and facilitated by your former president, His Excellency Chief Olusegun Bosanko, enjoins all signatories including the incumbent to refrain from disrupting or frustrating the legitimate activities of other political parties including the holding of political rallies, meetings, matches or demonstrations. Suffice to this, the High Court of the Gambia have ruled in the matter of A.N.M Ousainu Darboe & Another v. Inspector General of Police [1998] that refusing permit applications without giving any reason prescribed by the Public Order Act or any other existing law is a violation of the fundamental and constitutional right to freedoms of expression, association and assembly.

Mr. Peters first appeared at the Banjul Magistrate Court but his basic right to fair trial had not been observed. The whole trial had been vitiated by grave but advertent procedural flaws that ultimately impaired its final outcome. We believe this was as a result of Mr. Peters’ high profile status as a senior opposition political figure, and the strong desire on the part of the magistrate to safeguard his lucrative contract with the Gambian authorities.

First, the Magistrate attempted to coerce Mr. Peters to enter his plea by threatening him with imprisonment after he [Mr. Peters] posited that he could not enter plea without his lawyer being present. Mr. Peters’ refusal to enter plea was as a result of the charge sheet been amended to include a new indictment that was hitherto not communicated to him or his lawyer. Notwithstanding this, the Magistrate made good of his threat and sent Mr Peters to prison only to realise later that he did not even have the jurisdictional competency to preside over the case. Mr. Peters was subsequently granted bail and the case eventually moved to another court, the Kanifing Magistrate Court, also presided over by a Nigerian Magistrate.

At the Kanifing Court, Mr. Peter applied for a referral of certain issues to the Gambia Supreme Court for determination as to their constitutional validity. In the Gambia’s legal jurisprudence, this would normally trigger a stay of proceedings until the matter is decided by the Supreme Court. The Magistrate, however, did not grant the application, refused to stay proceeding and continued to deliberately frustrate Mr. Peters’ appeal at the High Court despite been informed of the pendency of the appeal and an application for stay of proceedings at a superior court. The Magistrate also and deliberately ignored the High Court’s ruling of 1998 above.

In another unprecedented move, the Magistrate coerced Mr. Peters to enter his defence without his lawyer who had earlier written to all the courts in the Gambia informing them of his unavailability for the day due to a scheduled meeting with the country’s Independent Electoral Commission. In the end, Mr. Peters was hopeless and had to abandon, reluctantly, his right to enter a defence.

In an affidavit filed on his behalf, Mr. Peters posited the following;

‘‘The court refused to entertain my application for an adjournment. The Court threatened to deal with me harshly if I did not enter my defence in the absence of my counsel; that because of this threat, I was coerced to abandon my constitutional right to a fair hearing and representation by counsel; and that it was this threatening and coercive attitude of the court that led me to take the position I took.’’

The United Democratic Party [UK] and the Coalition of Human Rights Gambia firmly believe that the arrest, trial, conviction and the subsequent harsh and disproportionate sentencing of Mr. Peters is a serious and blatant affront to his fundamental right to freedoms of speech, assembly and association as guaranteed by the Gambian Constitution and some other international treaty instruments including the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights to which the Gambia is a signatory.

It is also our believe that Mr. Peters’ arrest and subsequent imprisonment is a direct assault on the free and unhindered participation of bona fide Gambian political parties in the Shaping of the political will of the Gambian People as guaranteed by the constitution and recognised by our electoral laws and the 2006 Commonwealth brokered Memorandum of Understanding.

The United Democratic Party [UK] and the Coalition of Human Rights Gambia are also concern that the imprisonment of Mr. Peters may herald the beginning of concerted efforts and actions on the part of the regime in Banjul to deliberately stoke fear in the Gambian electorates and thereby undermining the credibility and integrity of the forth coming 2011 presidential election.

Your Excellency, while we acknowledge the limited control [if any] your government may have over the conduct of Nigerian citizens working in the Gambian Judiciary, we would, however, like to appeal to you to use your good office and urge your government to advise your citizens in the Gambia to refrain from anything that has a potential of undermining the credibility of the Gambian democracy and legal system, and the good brotherly relationship that exists between our two peoples.

We would also like to humbly ask you to bring the plight of Mr. Peters to the attention of your former president, His Excellency Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and ask him to use his influence as a respected African Statesman, to secure the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Peters.

Thank you for having us at your High Commission today, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Yours Sincerely,

K. Kanyi

Chairman

Cc; Baroness Catherine Ashton, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs

Baroness Kinnock, British Foreign Office Minister

Hon. William Hague [MP], Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary

Hon. Edward Davey [MP], Liberal Democrats Shadow Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Commonwealth Secretary General

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