More
than 60 per cent of the personnel of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA)
“are functionally illiterate” who can neither read nor understand English
language, according to a leaked petition from the agency.
The
petition, written by Bubacarr A.M.O Badjie, legal adviser of the NIA – now
referred to as the State Intelligence Services, has it that most of the
functionally illiterate NIAs got their employment through nepotism for they
were recruited by past and present NIA directors, former army generals and Pa
Bojang, a cousin to former President Yahya Jammeh.
“Individuals
who were brought by Pa Bojang comprise ‘Green Youth militants’ and other
residents of former President Jammeh’s mother’s home,” Mr Badjie said in the
petition, dated 22 May 2017, sent to the Office of the President and copied to
the Gambia Bar Association, Inspector General of Police and Director General of
NIA.
A
copy of it has been obtained by The Point newspaper.
According
to the petition, the usefulness of such people as NIA agents “is very
insignificant as most of them cannot write comprehensive English language nor
understand it”.
“Ordinarily,
the first priority of the reform is to conduct a proper staff audit as writing
is the working tool of the intelligence agents,” Mr Badjie said in the
petition.
According
to the legal adviser, the reform is not yet done and without it the NIA cannot
contribute effectively to the crucial role a democratised intelligence service
can play in the national security architecture to combat both traditional and
emerging threats including terrorism, espionage, insurgency, sabotage,
subversion, human trafficking, money laundering and illegal migration.
Spying
on Barrow
According
to the petition, during the campaign for the 2016 presidential election, an NIA
security officer (name withheld) while on study leave “infiltrated the UDP
party and even became a body guard to President Adama Barrow (when he was a
candidate) during the campaign and during the political impasse and shortly
after his assumption to the Office of the President.
The
guy is now promoted from a security officer to an operative directly answerable
to the director general of NIA.
Tampering
evidence
According
to the petition, the torture facility that the former director general of NIA,
Yankuba Badjie, allegedly erected at the NIA Investigation Unit has been
removed, “and the room repainted to remove stains of blood”.
“This
act amounts to tampering with evidence as investigation was being done into
death of Solo Sandeng, one of many individuals who had undergone torture
there,” the petition stated. “[With] the
removal of the torture facility at the Investigations Unit, there is risk other
such facilities constructed at SIS Safe-houses’ will be removed too.”
“Relative
to this is the fact that most of the individuals said to have been be involved
in the torture of Solo Sandeng and his co-UDP supporters are reporting to work
without facing any consequences for their actions,” it added.
In
the petition, Badjie also alleged that prosecution witnesses, Lamin Jobarteh
and Lamin Fatty, are now sent to outside postings, “thus making their
attendance at the trial a daunting task”.
Nine
former NIA officials, including the former director general, are currently
facing murder charges for the killing of Solo Sandeng and at some point, the
prosecution was hindered for lack of enough evidence.
According
to Badjie, in his petition, President Barrow should have been informed about
the human, material and financial resources of the NIA, including dissemination
of personnel and property in The Gambia and outside.
But
this was not done as of the time of writing the petition and Badjie feared that
it is a signal that the NIA tradition of non-accountability could be
maintained.
NIA
legal adviser said he deemed it imperative to write the petition to bring to
the attention of President Adama Barrow the “very little progress” made in the
reform process of the NIA.
