Edwin Slams Gambian NGOs, Nigerian Judges & High Commission: But still Can’t Answer The 1 Million Dollar Question

Nearly one year after his arrest, a human rights activist still cannot answer the one million dallar question: “What is the false information in all this, which you were charged for and convicted?
“That is the one million dollar question that I have not been able to resolve till date,” Edwin Nebolisa told a Nigerian newspaper, The Vanguard.
 Mr Edwin Nwakaeme is the founding Director of Africa in Democracy and Good Governance (ADG), a pan-African human rights organisation, he is said to have registered at the Gambia’s Attorney General’s Chambers in 2006 as a charitable organisation under the Company’s Act of 1956.
On February 22, 2010, he was arrested by the police. The initial plan according to him was to deport him. Yet as fate would have it, he “managed to make a quick call to the Nigerian High Commission and the Head of Chancery caught up with him at US Embassy where he was escorted by immigration officers to collect his passport for he was to be deported. The plan, however failed because there was no genuine reason.
On March 8, he was dragged to court accused of giving false information to the office of the President of the Gambia, which was later amended to giving false information to a public officer; that ADG is a charitable organisation.
Edwin pleaded not guilty, but was convicted. Despite spending seven months in prison during the course of the trial, which is above the maximum sentence for the offence for which he was charged, he was sentenced to a six month imprisonment and D10, 000 fine on September 6, 2010. His organisation’s license was revoked by the court’s order. On September 21, 2010, he appealed against his conviction, but failed. He was deported to Nigeria after serving his prison term. Upon re-uniting with his family, Edwin narrated his bitter Gambian experience, but also slammed at Gambian NGOs, Nigerian Judges and Nigerian High Commission in The Gambia.
     

 What false information

“Right from February 22, when I was arrested, I never knew the charge against me up till March 8, when I appeared before a Magistrates’ Court in The Gambia.  Throughout the proceeding, not even a single person appeared in court that I gave him or her false information. And no document was tendered with regards to the said false information in court.
“The two state witnesses, who appeared in court, were the Programme Officer at the NGO Affairs and the Police officer, who took my statement. So to whom was this false information given.
“The 2009 World Day Celebration, for the Prevention of Violence Against Children and Child Abuse, which is an annual event of the Women’s World Summit Foundation, WWSF, Geneva, and in partnership with Africa in Democracy and Good Governance, which  celebration was a huge success, was issued a march past permit by the Inspector General of Police of the Gambia.
The march was led by the Army Band, covered by the media in the Gambia, including state owned Gambia Radio and Television Service, which was aired. Among those who received the WWSF/ADG Goodwill Ambassador Honour was ASP Yamundow Jagne-Joof, who is the officer in charge of the Child Protection Unit at the Police headquarters. So if the programme took place, what was the false information and who was it given to?
For the avoidance of doubt, one can log on to the website of the WWSF 2009 members and partners.
So there is just nothing in the charge, except that they just wanted to get me out of the system for doing a good job and maybe, being critical of government, which is what any normal civil society group is supposed to do. They even ransacked my office and took away the hard drives in my computers.”
 

  ‘Envious Gambian civil society’

According to the Nigerian, The Gambian civil society groups were never happy with my organisation, because of our numerous activities.
“This was because most of the organisations that are operating in the Gambia are [either] pro-government or do not want to be seen fighting the government for fear of being clamped down,” he said.
He added that Gambian NGOs are envious of the strides ADG registered. “Within the last few years, ADG was able to record huge progress in its activities, both within and outside The Gambia, which also includes the observer status, granted it by the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, ACHPR.”
 

“adjudicators are prosecutors”

“I appeared before Justice Emmanuel Amadi who sat over my appeal against the lower court’s decision,” Edwin said. “Surprisingly, the judge is a Nigerian. It is also embarrassing that the Magistrate is a Nigeria and yet they convicted me and upheld my conviction, when they knew there was no case against me.
According to him, the unfortunate thing about The Gambian judicial system is that the moment you are accused, the magistrates and judges themselves are more or less the prosecutors.
“It appears that they find you guilty first and want you to prove your innocence, which is the other way round in every other system, except in The Gambia, that you are presumed innocent until the otherwise is proved. The court which should ordinarily be the last hope of the common man, is actually the one prosecuting people,” Edwin said. “I don’t think there is any [...] Nigerian judge in The Gambia.”
“Did the Nigerian High Commissioner in Gambia do enough to assist you?” the journalist asked Edwin. “Not at all. I was most embarrassed by her actions or lack of it. You cannot believe that it was the British High Commissioner and Americans that were following my case and doing all they could to help, while my High Commissioner, who is being sustained by the Nigerian tax payers money did absolutely nothing for me,” he replied.
“It is rather very unfortunate that our foreign missions do not care about us or represent ordinary Nigerians in foreign countries well. If you have any problem in Gambia, as a Nigerian, you are solely on your own. If you expect the Nigerian High Commissioner to do anything, you will certainly die before anything is done, if at all any would be done,” Edwin said.