By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The move last week by President AdamaBarrow to pardon a convicted rapist and murderer has engendered a social media storm.
The convicted rapist and murderer were among 37 prisoners, who recently benefitted from a presidential clemency.
Pap Ebrima Kalilou Laye Cham, a Senegalese national, who was found guilty and convicted of murdering Fatou Loum in her salon in Kololi in 2018, has been freed by Mr. Barrow.
The Senegalese, sentenced to death by the high court, was among the beneficiaries of the presidential prisoner pardon on 19 January 2024.
Meanwhile, the President has also pardoned a convicted rapist, Momodou Camara, in last week’s prisoner pardon.
Camara has been sent to jail for 20 years for raping a four-year-old girl but was given clemency by the Gambian leader in a move that continues to generate public outcry and social media uproar.
After it became apparent that Mr. Barrow had extended mercy to a murderer and rapist, social media sizzled with many commentators, expressing disappointment in and consternation at the President’s move. The commentators were united in their condemnation of the move with many saying the President had sent a wrong signal by pardoning a cold-blooded murderer and a rapist. It also came at a time when the country’s police stations and courts continued to be virtually inundated by a deluge of reports about rape cases and violent crimes.
According to The Fatu Network, the spokesperson of the Gambia government Ebrima G. Sankareh has claimed that the victims’ families have greenlighted the President’s move a week ago to extend clemency to the perpetrators of violent crimes against their family members.
The Voice could not establish the veracity of Sankareh’s claim as attributed to him by the online media platform but what it can establish was that the President’s move was very unpopular in lots of quarters.