Letter To President Barrow: Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied

(JollofNews) – Mr President, prudence imparts no matter the truth some people will always see only what they want to see. It further buttresses there are others who would take a step back to look at the bigger picture only to realise they have been all along looking at what was there.

Flipping the coin on its other side, will unearth hair-splitting realisation for some that their lies have almost caught up with them. It is also interesting to note that amongst people is a handful that opts to run as far away as they can just to avoid taking a look at themselves.

This regurgitated what an old friend once accentuated: “Honest communication is where good and genuine relationships are based.” As a result, I am writing to tell you what most Gambian wants you to…launch the bringing to book Jammeh and his cronies.

Injustice is a chancy venom which breeds hatred. Hatred nurtures dissent. Dissent sputters civil disobedience. Civil disobedience procreates violence. Violence consumes lives and properties. Mr President, righteousness instils delaying the dispensation of justice by leaders and people in authority either by tenacity or solecism imprints distrust, bigotry and ineptitude in the hearts and minds of their populace.

Understandably, your government had endured a momentary political impasse resulting in the delay of constituting a cabinet and commencing functional duties as scheduled. Providentially, that dangerous bridge has been crossed serenely. As a consequent, any lapse in addressing pertinent calls for speedy bringing to account perpetrators of monstrous felonies in the Jammeh regime will punctuate insensitivity and lack of readiness to forge lasting and comprehensive peace and reconciliation among Gambians.

Your Excellency, it is not outlandish to assert you have taken over from a government which for 22 years has not only disdainfully repressed but orchestrated gruesome killings, tortures, maims, banishment, disappearances, unlawful arrests and incarcerating its vulnerable citizens. As such, not a single Gambian family’s feathers remain unruffled by Jammeh and his nefarious cronies.

Recently, we have witnessed in the social media the heart-breaking motherly recount of Ebou Lowe’s untimely and callous demise. Her sobbing motherly voice exudes her daily unabated agonies and uncertainties of whether to mourn or not for her son.

Mr President, knowing the truth about her son will go a long way in soothing her indelible scare. Watching her empty her heart rekindled Ndey Tapha Sosseh reliving the plight of Imam Baba Leigh when he was incarcerated. My hearts wept when she moaned: “Heart pounding violently against my ribs; Temples throbbing and head reeling, I feel the bitter bile rising from my stomach. I wake up in cold sweat, shivering and trembling. I want to scream out my anguish and my pain…I ponder on the painful situation of Lala. I think of Maria who had to lay Deyda’s bullet ridden body to rest.

Many others have been able to bury and mourn for their loved ones. Lala has been denied all of that. She does not know whether her husband, Imam Baba Leigh is alive or dead. The uncertainty of her situation haunts her every move. She does not know if she should mourn or not mourn. Unable to face her children or answer their questions, she averts her gaze as she is unable to look them in the eyes”. Fortunately, Imam Baba Leigh came out alive from his nightmarish ordeal, but Ebou Lowe did not. Your Excellency, can you fathom what she endures daily?

As if her story was not adequate to warrant the arrest and prosecution of Yankuba Badjie (NIA Director of terror), Sanna Manjang and co, “Sortie Jammeh, son of Sukuta Jammeh, the late Director of Investigation at the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) told the Fatu Show that his father at the time confirmed to him that the duo were killed” (Fatunetwork).

Mr President, as Sortie walks us through the dark balconies of the notorious NIA and the ferocious torments Ebou Jobe and Alhagie Mamut Ceesay met before breathing their last, gruesome images of those dragged to their untimely dead were conjured in my mind’s eye like a high definition horror movie. Unconsciously, I caressed my head as rivers of tears gush down my burning cheeks. The graphic thought of those whose hopes and dreams Jammeh and his cronies mutilated in the blink of an eye thrust a cold shiver through my bristle like a raging volcano. I felt sick to my stomach with fury knowing some of the alleged perpetrators of these callous felonies are still walking freely in the Gambia.

Your Excellency, Halifa Sallah once accented: “The wisdom of the ages teaches that a nation is too complex a social organisation to be run by the thinking of one brain. A nation only has a future if it is governed by the collective intelligence and will power of its enlightened and dedicated citizenry. Those who cannot harness such national human resources under a climate of liberty, dignity and prosperity should retire from politics. This is the verdict of common sense and it is incontrovertible”

Consequently, Mr President, before instituting a commission of peace and reconciliation, please let anyone who allegedly aided and abetted, orchestrated, ordered and/or in any means partook in the torture, killing and unlawful arrest of any Gambian be arrested, his or her travel documents seized pending their investigation and subsequent prosecution.

While counting on your living up to expectation, please accept my highest commitment.

Yours in the service of The Gambia