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| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Momodou |
Posted - 04 Jan 2023 : 10:23:11
There Is A Method To The Madness
By ALAGIE SAIDY BARROW
Investigating anything effectively and efficiently requires a basic understanding of investigative methods or techniques. Steps to effectively investigate any incident include planning and strategising the investigation, gathering, preserving and analysing information, gathering facts and evidence and presenting it in a report for further action. These are basic steps that anyone investigating anything follows in some variation. In some way, doctors, mechanics, and engineers follow these steps to get to the bottom of issues. In investigations, you may hear terms like the PEACE method or Reid Technique, and in other fields, you may listen to words like Root Cause Analysis, Fishbone Analysis etc. All these are meant to get to the bottom of issues and find solutions. Let me add that these are not perfect methods by any means and are simply guidelines that one adopts to suit what’s before them.
In The Gambia, during the days of Yaya Jammeh, when investigating specific crimes, his security mandarins often constituted a panel of disparate individuals and called it an investigative panel. These individuals often have zero skills in interrogating or interviewing techniques. Their modus operandi was to ask questions and demand the answers they desired. Most in these panels were only present because they happened to be in one of the security forces or because they served as Jammeh’s ears and eyes. And because they have no expertise in investigating anything, they often had the Junglers on standby to torture confessions out of suspects when they didn’t get the answers they were looking for. Once the panel gets these confessions, their whole case is centred around the fruits of the forbidden tree. And because in The Gambia, the due process mostly only existed on paper, kangaroo courts and a sham court-martial process saw nothing wrong with these “confessions.” The suspect’s fates were sealed and delivered to the delight of Yaya Jammeh. These sham court-martial processes under Jammeh will not stand any severe legal scrutiny anchored on the proper rule of law. All that mattered was protecting Jammeh’s powers. In the Gambia of Yaya Jammeh, the law is secondary to his powers.
Fast forward to post Yaya Jammeh. You may have noticed that most people accused of planning a coup against Adama Barrow are walking around free. The one major incident that many of us may remember is the nine WhatsApp group soldiers accused of plotting a coup, court-martialed, and found guilty by a sham process, only to be discharged and acquitted upon appeal. According to the Standard Newspaper, some are suing the Gambia Government for 15 million dalasis. Someone didn’t do their homework right, and poor Gambians are left holding the bag. Remember, the Barrow government also detained Saul Badgie, only for the courts to determine that his detention was illegal. How about the young man they accused of using fake documents to join the military, and the army dismissed him? The government pretty much lost all these significant cases. Do you know why? It’s because we hardly do our homework before submitting our assignment.
Even in high profile court cases of recent, you will notice that many suspects or defendants are either discharged and acquitted or the state discontinues their prosecution. Without physical evidence, our people have minimal, if any, skills in obtaining confessions unless they force it out of suspects. One reason is that we still rely on disproven methods of obtaining testimonial evidence. There is a method to the madness and constituting some panel to investigate suspects when the police have already investigated them is nothing but an abuse of due process. What can this panel unearth in 30 or so dates that police and military investigators could not unearth if given the right tool? I hope the lawyers of the accused are paying attention.
I’m not saying other countries don’t have investigative panels; I’m saying that what we are doing is an abuse of due process. If we claim international best practices, the practice should conform to international standards. We started by hiding members of this panel, which is also international best practice. But here’s the takeaway: just because others do it does not make it the best method for us. We must learn to think for ourselves. Unique situations require unique thinking. What will this so-called panel reveal that the investigators couldn’t have revealed if given the right tools? Now listen to them tell us investigative panels are standard in many countries as if they serve the same purpose. This investigative panel abuse is a relic of Yaya Jammeh’s tyranny! We can’t continue to use Jammeh’s tools of abuse and call them international best practices!
By ALAGIE SAIDY BARROW! |
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