Ousman Sowe, director general of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), has said his agency is committed to addressing the security needs of the country stressing that the security situation remains peaceful.

However, he pointed out that social media continues to remain a challenge according to their 2018 assessment.

The spy chief was speaking on Friday during a press conference at the SIS Headquarters in Banjul. The press briefing was meant to give the state of the SIS over the year regarding their work.

“In meeting the national security challenges over this period, we have concluded that one way that works for this country is engagement. We need to engage each other. We need to have constructive discussion and we need to have constructive engagement and that has been our strategy,” Sowe said.

He added that thanks to the support, understanding, readiness and cooperation of the Gambian people and other stakeholders, they were able to contribute immensely in maintaining national peace and security.

He said their task was to reform the agency so that it becomes an intelligence service worthy in helping and meeting the security needs of the country both at home and abroad.

Part of their reforms, he went on, is to have a public institution that is accepted, trusted, recognised and that is not scaring people and that it commands the confidence of people.

“What we have seen happening in the country is the fact that people are now coming to us and they are not running away from us. We are focused on our intelligence collection, processing, analyzing and dissemination.

“We have come with the hashtag #nomoreexcesses that have been our guiding tool. Today we can say that there’s no more excesses in the service and I mean it because we have not arrested or detained anyone,” he said.

Sowe stated that they have gone on tour and visited communities across the country with the view to bringing the message of the new SIS. “We want to have a SIS that is for the Gambian people but not against Gambian. We want to have a SIS that will work in ensuring that national security is maintained an also a SIS that will invite Gambians to partake in national security affairs,” he added.

The level of capacity building that currently is undergoing both at home and abroad, Sowe said, had never happened before.

“Today SIS staff are highly trained and will continue to be trained and they are highly motivated,” he stated, noting that they have gone far in infrastructure, resources mobilisation and deployment.

This is the third press conference the once oppressive agency, formerly known as the NIA, has held since been rebranded in February 2017.