Lawyer Yankuba Daboe, one of the banned Three Years Jotna leaders, who were cleared off their charges, has spoken describing their trial by the state as disheartening and disappointing.
“Our trial under President Barrow was quite disheartening and disappointing from the leadership we supported to prop our rights only for him to supervise the abuse we were subjected to.”
He went on to say that he believes the charges were an abuse of power meant to stifle their dissent.
“I believe the charges were an abuse of power from the outset mainly designed to stifle our dissent and they remained the same up to date, it has been that since.”
Daboe said the charges should not have been contemplated in the first place, in the spirit of democracy 22 years of dictatorship.
“As far as we are concerned, these charges should not have been contemplated in the first place, in the spirit of supporting our striving democracy in The Gambia after 22 years of dictatorship.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice announced in a dispatch that the state has withdrawn the case as a humanitarian gesture taken after consultation with the President and within the Ramadan spirit. It continued that the withdrawal is predicated on promoting peace and reconciliation among all stakeholders in the political process as the country approaches the upcoming presidential election in December this year.
Reacting to the announcement, the young Lawyer Daboe said reconciliation is only attainable once the truth is established and those who wronged are willing to accept their wrongs and seek the forgiveness of their victims.
Lawyer Yankuba Daboe was speaking in an exclusive interview with one of the nation’s online news outlet shortly after the Attorney General and Minister of Justice took the decision to withdraw the criminal proceedings against him and other executive members of the “3years Jotna” who were charged with various offences under the criminal code in respect to the 26th January 2020 protest which sough President Barrow to respect the 3 years transition period the coalition promised Gambians during the 2016 presidential election campaign.