"We will also not allow this country to be another narcotic state. I have zero tolerancefor criminals. I have double zero tolerance for drugs. Drugs and murder are synonymous," were the words of President Yahya Jammeh during the swearing-in ceremony of six newly-appointed judges at State House yesterday, aired over GRTS last evening.
Assuring Gambians that there is no way his administration would allow a few individuals to destabilise this country in whatever form, President Jammeh posited that "where you have drugs you have violence and you have a total state of anarchy which is unacceptable."
The Gambian leader emphasized the need to fill the vacancies at the High Court before the end of the year to ensure that the court is effective and efficient. He gave as adivice that judges should handle their responsibility with honesty as they would be accountable based on how they execute their mandates.
?Remember that there are always two sides to a case - the one who is perceived to be offended and the one who is perceived to be the offender. In your judgment and consideration to human rights, the victim has more human rights than the criminal.
"If the criminal did not offend the victim he would not have been brought to court. Remember that both are human beings; the other being accused of doing something wrong and the other perceived to be the victim of the wrong doing of the other," he stressed.
"I follow the courts very closely. I think the CJ can bear witness to that. No court is too low to me; no court is too high to me. No case is too small for me. No case is so big for me. I follow all cases, because my intention is to make sure that we build a decent society; a society of decent human beings; a society where there is respect; a society where African values are respected.
"I have nothing against anybody. Those who suppose to face the law, they face the law, and at the end of the day you decide whether they are wrongly put before the law," he said.