By Tabora Bojang
The Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice has urged the Minister of Justice and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to act with urgency, diligence, and impartiality to ensure that all perpetrators in the ‘preventable and unjustifiable’ death of Omar Badjie, are prosecuted and held fully accountable.
The call came after a Coroner’s inquest blamed his death on brain injury caused by police assault at his native Mandinary last year.
The Centre said it is deeply shocked and disturbed by the state’s continuous complicity in the loss of lives it is constitutionally mandated to protect.
“The Constitution and the Police Act establish the police as guardians of life, liberty, and property. Yet, recurrent incidents demonstrate a troubling pattern in which law enforcement officers deploy excessive and unlawful force against citizens, using state-provided authority, weapons, and resources to violate the very rights they are sworn to uphold,” the Centre warned.
“The death of Omar Badgie adds to a growing list of cases of police brutality resulting in fatalities and serious injuries, including the Faraba incident of 2018. These recurring violations point to systemic leadership failure within the Gambia Police Force. In this regard, we also call for the immediate resignation of the Inspector General of Police. A police service that persistently violates human rights cannot command public confidence,” it added.
According to the EFSCRJ such incidents further expose the stagnation and failure of security sector reform efforts, representing a grave betrayal of the national commitment to “Never Again.”
It frowned at the government’s alleged lack of political will to meaningfully transform the security sector despite numerous recommendations. “Since independence, the Gambia Police Force has too often operated as an instrument against the rights and freedoms of citizens rather than as their protector. This historical pattern must be decisively broken. It is therefore unsurprising that public trust in the police remains consistently low, as reflected in various surveys. The time for rhetoric has long passed. What is required now is decisive action, accountability, and genuine reform to restore the integrity and purpose of the police service,” the Centre said.
