Baboucarr
A.M.O. Badjie, the embattled legal adviser of the State Intelligence Services
(SIS), was yesterday summoned at the police headquarters where instruction was
issued for him to hand over keys to his office.
Badjie’s
office currently stores between three to five thousand executive directives
from former President Yahya Jammeh’s office from 1994 to 2016, investigations
and panel reports, budget estimates of the agency, correspondences with other
government departments, documentations regarding external cooperation with
other agencies, and detainee lists, all covering same period – 1994 to 2016.
The
Legal Affairs Office of the SIS also stores administrative documents such as
transfers, restructuring, strategic planning, intelligence estimates and annual
work plans of the unit heads of the agency.
Sources
said Badjie refused to comply with the instructions on the grounds that “the
integrity of the documents in that office must be protected”.
“Badjie’s
lawyer, Lamin Darboe, had to rush to the police headquarters yesterday to
reinforce the point that his client cannot go to the NIA for any handover
without formal writing from the Personnel Management Office,” the sources said.
Mr
Badjie had been served with an interdiction notice from the Personnel
Management Office (PMO), notifying him of his suspension over violation of the
ethics of his job at the agency.
The
notice was issued following the allegation to the PMO by the head of the
intelligence agency that Badjie was violating terms of his service by revealing
official secrets to the press.
The
outcome of the investigation into the allegation made by the SIS boss to the
PMO is not yet communicated to Badjie, even when the investigation panel had
submitted their report since July, the sources said.
Earlier
on, Badjie sent a petition to President Adama Barrow to inform him of alleged
evidence tampering at the SIS and the need to urgently to embark on staff audit
at the agency, especially as 66 per cent of their recruits were non-literates
brought in by some army generals under Jammeh.
Escorted
by panel members
Badjie
was escorted by two members of the investigation panel from Kairaba Police
Station to the Serious Crimes Unit of the police headquarters, where the said
instructions were relayed from the Crime Management Coordinator (CMC), Demba
Sowe.
Police
CMC Sowe, just like SIS Director General Ousman Sowe, were both onetime
dismissed from the former NIA. Police
CMC Sowe had served as director of external cooperation, director of analysis,
and director operations, respectively.
CMC Sowe was also detained at Mile II at one point in relations to
scandal.
“CMC
Sowe was reinstated into the police by the ex-DG of the NIA Yankuba Badjie who
is now a suspect in the murder trial of Solo Sandeng,” sources said.
Administration
procedures not followed
Meanwhile,
Badjie’s lawyer has expressed concern that his client’s office keys were handed
over to the director general of the SIS Ousman Sowe by someone at the police
headquarters even though the investigations were still ongoing.
“This
is another reason why Badjie must not hand over the keys to the CMC since the
integrity of the about 10,000 documents in that office may have been already
compromised,” lawyer Darboe, Badjie’s counsel, is reported to have told the
police yesterday.
Besides,
the PMO must also write to Badjie to state the outcome of the investigation,
giving basis for their decision – whether Badjie should be transferred,
dismissed or reinstated. All these
depend on the PMO, not the DG of the SIS, Darboe argued.
