A constitution and its accompanying laws if rooted in safeguarding the liberty of the human person would not back indefinite detention without trial.
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice has the duty to serve as oversight of the criminal justice system. In certain cases, prosecution cannot even commence without the fiat of the Attorney General. In other cases, the Attorney General has power to enter a nolle prosequi.
Such powers are given to prevent miscarriage of justice and should be judiciously utilised to promote substantive justice. When civil disobedience occurs and damage to properties become manifest, the state has to make a balancing act to prevent those who went to the extreme from doing the same again and those who fell victim from feeling neglected.
It is an anticipated caution that protest in a democratic society should not lead to loss of life and property, but should lead to awakening the conscience of those who govern to remedy the wrong and enhance the doing of right. As thirty people are granted reprieve by the strike of the pen of the Attorney General and seven people granted bail, all those who are on different sides of the civil disobedience in the Kanifing municipality should go back to the drawing board and find out the weaknesses that gave rise to an aftermath which has not led to focusing on Ousman Darboe and what could be done to take care of his family and prevent any development in the future that may raise questions about the circumstances of the death of a person.
We hope that from henceforth there will be better community police relations and more understanding of how to advocate for justice in a manner that is reasonable and justifiable in a democratic society. The new Gambian youth must be such a dignified and mature youth who will always act on the basis of reason and conscience and not on the basis of emotion and inducement. Let us all go to the drawing board to figure out how to find a just settlement in connection with the occurrence and how to prevent recurrence.
