By Binta Jaiteh
Two senior police officers Tuesday appeared before members of the National Assembly committee to answer to allegation made through a petitioned written by an association which alleged that the country’s police force is refusing to take action to stop animals rustling within the communities, which the officers strongly denied the allegation.
In a written petition letter from Wuli East Animal Protection Association to National Assembly accused the officers of the police within the district of failing to stop animal stealing. The association said it has enough evidence to proof this allegation.
Former Commissioner of Basse, Famara Jallow told the committee he was deployed to Basse mainly to tackle rampant robbery cases and animal theft in the region. To tackle the matter he negotiated with his Senegalese counterparts in Tamba Kunda in Senegal Oriental and successfully recovered over 40 ruminants which was a mark of his success.
He also said that the villagers did not trust the Sare Ngai police and refused to hand over the bike to them. He said when he knew that he went to the village purposely to calm down the tension among the two village groups due to the issue of the motorbike and asked them to give him the motorbike because that was the material evidence they could use as an exhibit in court.
“The accused person was not known and I handover the case to the SO of the police station to keep the motorbike in the station and record the complaint in the station diary and give the complainant a diary reference number in case she or villagers come across the alleged thief, within 1 month I was transferred and that was early 2018,” he said.
When asked if he would be surprised to learn that Amadou Gagigo told the Committee that he indeed dished out meat at his own volition to the police; that the police at both Sare Ngai and Mr Darboe accepted that Gagigo indeed gave out meat to them.
He replied said if they receive meat, that is their problem but for him, he does not accept it because it’s not right; that his residence was more than a kilometre from the station and he has nothing to do with butchers.
Representing the Inspector General of Police, Deputy IGP Momodou Sowe said as an institution, they are a team and had prepared themselves to explain any issue raised and whether or not the IGP is present they could decide issues for the department.