The leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party, UDP,
Ousainou Darboe, has said that the 26 August executions of nine death row
inmates by the Gambia Government was not a constitutional obligation.
Speaking to The Standard in an exclusive interview
at his office in Banjul, the 64-year-old constitutional lawyer asserted: “The
constitution does not state that those convicted of murder must willy-nilly be
executed. If that were so, there would be no reason why we would have Section 82
in the Constitution. It is absolutely misleading to say that the president was
upholding the constitution when these executions took place. It is again
misleading to say that the death penalty was introduced by the constitution and
people voted for it in a referendum. Those people who said that the constitution
empowered the president to execute do not understand the constitution. The
constitution takes outside the class of murder, deprivation of life carried out
pursuant to judicial order. In 1996, the constitution was not put [explained] to
Gambians in piece-meal and no voter had an option to say that he was voting to
approve Section 13 or disapprove Section 18 of the constitution. It was the
thinking of small minds that Section 18 was approved by Gambians at a
referendum. It was the AFPRC government that restored the death penalty and
exercised legislative powers that were not bestowed on them by the Gambian
people. It was Decree 52 passed by the AFPRC military government that introduced the death penalty.So Gambians had
no say in the passing of the death penalty.
Before 1994, how many murder cases
did we have in The Gambia? Between the date when the death penalty was abolished
and the date the death penalty was restored, how many murder cases do we have?
The Minister for the Interior, Ousman Sonko, said in one year there were more
than 20 murder offences committed.”
Asked his opinion on the streaming of
elders, women and youth groups to State House to appeal for reprieve from the
president, Darboe said: “One thing that is clear was that the Jammeh government
has realised that it has committed the biggest blunder in executing these nine
prisoners. And in order to cover up their blunder, they resorted to
self-lobbying. They called on all APRC outfits to appeal to the president
through the vice-president for clemency. This self-lobby shows that no leader
should be intransigent and no leader should ignore local and international
opinion on issues like the death penalty or implementation of the death penalty.
I do not condone murder, manslaughter, infanticide and abortion. It is because
of my revulsion for the taking away of life that I do not defend anybody charged
with murder, infanticide, abortion and manslaughter. But that does not mean that
I support the imposition of death penalty as a punishment for murder or any
crime. One would have thought that if the death penalty were a deterrent, murder
cases would have been on the decline than on the increase. Talking about 20
murder cases in one year, were not more than ten defenceless unarmed school
children killed one day in this country? There is no legal justification for the
killing of the students. Why were the perpetrators not brought to court and
prosecuted for murder? If those who killed those innocent school children in
2000 were protected by any of the exceptions in Section 18 of the constitution,
the Indemnity Act would not have been amended to absolve the perpetrators of
those heinous crimes. Let us stop appealing to the constitution to justify the
unjustifiable. If Section 82 was not in the constitution then we could all say
the president cannot be merciful to anybody. Those people who have been charged
and are being tried at the high court..why has the government not upheld the
constitution and allowed them decide for their trials be conducted by a judge
and jury as provided for in Section 24, Subsection 9 of the constitution which
was also an entrenched section. The implementation of the death penalty will not
attract investors to invest in the country. President Jammeh and cohorts are
trying to justify their blunder that the executions were also meant to give
confidence to investors by guaranteeing their personal safety. I am saying that
their argument that the death penalty will give confidence to investors is
puerile. There are countries on the African continent where the murder rate a
day is much higher than The Gambia's murder rate in a decade and yet investors
are going into those countries in large percentage. There are countries in the
sub-region where the murder rate is higher and yet investors do not hesitate to
invest in there because they knew that their investment was guaranteed. In order
to attract investors in The Gambia, the government should be able to lure them
and guarantee their investment.”
Responding to assertions made by the
Local Government and Regional Administration minister, Lamin Waa Juwara, that
the opposition endorsed the death penalty in the constitution, the UDP leader
retorted: “I do not like responding to Juwara because he has several times said
that this constitution was tailor-made to suit President Jammeh and his cohorts.
Any serious minded person and any serious political party will certainly look at
the constitution in its entirety in order to see what changes should be effected
to it.”
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