The police have reacted in a statement to Foroyaa’s Editorial of 1 August 2017, emphasising that they are committed to the instituting of a Coroner’s Inquest and that in fact the Chief Justice has appointed “Principal Magistrate Lamin George of Bundung Magistrate court as Coroner to probe into the matter so as to ascertain the circumstances leading to Lamin Krubally’s death.” This is good news and Foroyaa will give a full coverage to the proceedings of the Inquest.
The police statement also stressed that, “The office of the IGP wants to remind the general public that the police never defy any law especially in this new democratic dispensation as insinuated by Foroyaa newspaper. The police are only following a lawful process in these matters.” This is also good news and Foroyaa welcomes it.
Foroyaa as a media outlet is only playing its constitutional role of holding the government accountable to the people. In this regard Foroyaa will raise pertinent questions and queries for persons in authority to answer and if they ignore the questions or queries we will persist and make it an issue.
Foroyaa has been asking the question whether or not there will be a Coroner’s Inquest on the death of Lamin Krubally since 18 July 2017 and as we continued to repeat the question through Editorial, Question of the Day and the PRO, another person (Ebrima Fall) died in custody. This led us to raise a similar question, whether there will be an inquest in his case. But now the question has been answered.
This is good for the new Gambia, for democracy and transparency.
