The Gambia’s Inspector General of Police Seedy Muctarr Touray has justified the withdrawal of police orderlies assigned to magistrates, a decision that has raised a wider range of security concerns among the affected magistrates. 

He said that the decision was made after his office conducted a threat assessment which revealed that more than 200 of the police guard stations were inadequately staffed.

“We conducted a threat assessment based on the fact that we have a lot of guard duty stations of 305 where police officers are conducting and mounting guard duties. We realise that in the guard stations, there are not enough officers to effectively perform their duties.

“After this threat assessment, we realised that actually the threat is not very imminent. So, the decision was informed by this. Perhaps we should’ve notified the judiciary about this decision,” he said.

In response, the judiciary department has reached out to the office of the Inspector General of Police in an effort to resolve the matter amicably.

By Adama Makasuba