Advice to CDS Badgie, IGP Sonko

A mere six days ago, on the 5^th of December 2016, you were both on the front-page of the Daily Observer newspaper pledging your loyalty to the President-Elect of the Republic of The Gambia.

Today, I hear that the Inspector General of Police Mr. Sonko’s forces and the Chief of Defence Staff General Badgie’s forces are out in force in the streets of Banjul and elsewhere in The Gambia facing Gambian citizens who might object to out-going President Jammeh’s rejection of the 1^st December Election results.

I don’t know CDS Badgie but I hear that he is a law-abiding, educated and well-trained professional. I know IGP Sonko well and I know that he is a law-abiding, exceptionally well-educated and well-trained individual (and I will never forgotten his personal kindness to me when I was detained by President Jammeh and handed over to the care of then-CMC Sonko for 14 days).

My Advice:-

Your pledge of loyalty to the President-Elect is the only thing that gives any of your actions the protection of legality in the light of the incumbent’s unlawful “annulment” of the elections. The incumbent has no power to annul the elections. A statement to that effect is indeed “null and void”. The incumbent has thus put himself outside the Constitution, which makes him an “outlaw”. Please note that if any Gambian dies while you are following the outgoing-President’s orders – and ignoring the President-Elect to whom you pledged your loyalty – you will be held personally liable for any such deaths. Please keep the peace in the Peaceful Gambia that we all love – and protect the people of The Gambia while taking your orders from the lawfully elected President-Elect.

If you are under duress to execute unlawful orders, I suggest you resign and leave the country until the President-Elect and the International Community find a solution to the “Annulment Crisis”.

Dida Halake

Notting Hill

London, UK

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