By Ramatoulie Jawo
The Secretary-General and Party Leader of the United Democratic Party {UDP}, Lawyer Ousianu Darboe said what is happening to Momodou Sabally is an abuse of the Judicial Process.
“I assure all of you that what is happening is just an abuse of the Judicial process. What is happening is that the judiciary and the police are conniving with Adama Barrow. Because they know that the local government elections are coming and they are losing ground. So this is the way to intimidate people. We will never be intimidated, we will make sure that we retain all our Councils. We will also make sure that the Councils that is aspiring to win. This is what we mean by taking the country and we are prepared to take the country” Darboe stated.
Momodou Sabally was arrested on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, about a video circulating on social media in which he spoke about how they would take the country back from President Barrow before the Local Government elections in 2023.
Since his arrest, Sabally has been under Police custody and will remain in detention until after Christmas and New Year holidays on the orders of a judge that approved the states application to detain him beyond the 72 hours constitutional limit.
Mr. Darboe, who is the Leader of UDP defended the statement made by Sabally, saying it has been “wrongly” interpreted.
“If taking the country means taking the government, well that is a wrong interpretation. When Sabally said he will lockdown the country does that means taking the government? But I will give you an affidavit by somebody who called himself Lamin Cham. I don’t know who he is, but he swears a false affidavit. Because Mr. Sabally never used the word government he said “Banko” which simply means country.
“How many times have people sang ‘ye ye ye Lawyer Darboe ye Banko tah’? what makes that treason, pretending to be what am not? But because Mr. Sabally is torn in their flesh, that is why they think that this is a way to silence him”. Darboe added.
The UDP leader also described the extension of Sabally’s detention as shameful and a sign of a return to the bad old days of the former regime.
“Is shameful, is really shameful and our country has not bargained for this. These are not the lessons we have learned from the TRRC. The lessons we learned from the TRRC are that we should be measured and we should be protective of the laws of this country unless they commit an offense. I am ashamed of the judiciary starting to behave or some of the judges in our judiciary starting to behave the way they have been behaving in Yahya Jammeh’s time, is not a good omen” Darboe stressed.