Gambia: Whistle-blower arrested amid corruption claims

By Mustapha K Darboe

BANJUL, Gambia

Gambia’s new President Adama Barrow is under fire after the state intelligence institution arrested a whistle-blower who exposed “high-level corruption” at the institution.

The arrest of Bubacarr Badjie, a legal adviser at the agency, was confirmed Sunday, on accusations of breaking the country’s security secrets and code of conduct for intelligence officers.

Badjie, who leaked a copy of a letter he wrote to Barrow to the media and the Gambia Bar Association, accused the agency of having a workforce 60 percent of which is “functionally illiterate” and can neither read nor understand English.

He claimed that a large percentage of the staff, many of them close to former strongman President Yahya Jammeh, were recruited into the agency by past and present directors, former army generals, and Jammeh’s cousin, Pa Bojang.

The agency has been accused of torture and killings under Jammeh, and Barrow had promised to reform the institution, a pledge the whistleblower said is not being respected.

The agency reacted with fury to Badjie’s allegations, calling them untrue.

Alieu Sagnia, former director of information services, said there should be a law that protects whistle-blowers in the country.