Jammeh speaking to local and international journalists
in November 2011
|
“I said shoot and ask questions later
because we are not going to tolerate this nonsense,” Jammeh told members of the
National Security Council, chaired by the Vice President, Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy
on May 22, 2012 at State House in Banjul.
It is not clear whether this command
include shooting to kill or not to kill. However, the Gambian leader, who was
speaking at the security meeting meant to clean the country of criminals,
dubbed “Operation Bulldozer” tasked the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Lt. Gen.
Massaneh Kinteh to handle operations in this area.
“…you handle that because the fact that
they are armed is no longer a police matter, if you arrest them, hand them over
to the police to prosecute them, but as I said shoot and ask questions later
because we are not going to tolerate this nonsense,” he said.
Let him come and ask me, Mr. Jammeh said at
the meeting broadcast on State-TV, referring to any person who has any
objection to his order to shoot at armed robbers. The act of armed robbery,
which he calls a “new phenomenon”, is not in our nature.
The last time we had almost 50 cases of
murder in one year, it is not going to happen this year, he added, warning the Inspector
General of Police (IGP), Yankuba Sonko and CDS Kinteh to warn the police and soldiers
“that security is security.”
The C-In-C of the armed forces declared
that armed robbers will not be allowed to terrorise innocent people in the
Gambia. “In fact, armed robbers are not welcome in this country,” he stressed.
“I want criminals to be ready because we
have to clean the Greater Banjul Area before the 22nd of June,” Jammeh said, giving a one-month of
intensive offensive against criminals, in which, criminal dens will be demolished,
and those found wanting to be prosecuted if apprehended.
The Greater Banjul is the country’s most
densely populated region, and in which the country’s largest town, Serrekunda,
is situated.
“Operation Bulldozer” will also crackdown on
suspected drug dealers, pedophiles’, homosexuals, murderers, human traffickers,
and tricksters (419).
Though the president ordered the CDS to
handle operations against armed robbers, Jammeh said he will supervise and
command operation bulldozer.
The latest operation, adds to the many attempts
by the Government’s 17-year effort to put straight an increasingly growing
society caught in a catch-22 situation.
Such efforts include Operation No
Compromise – to tackle official corruption; Zero Tolerance to Drugs and
Corruption; and Operation Feed Yourself – for food-self sufficiency.
While the tackling of official corruption
and drugs have been alive and kicking, the later, Operation Feed Yourself,
could not however prevent a food crisis already extant in the country and is
rarely referred to these days.
Written by Modou S. Joof
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