By Assan Sallah.
The former Inspector General of Police (2008 – 2010) Ensa Badjie has been re-instated into the Gambia Police Force with the rank of a Commissioner, impeccable sources in Banjul revealed.
Contrary to certain media reports, Badjie, widely known by his sobriquet Jesus, has been re-appointed as deputy Crime Management Co-ordinator (CMC) but not CMC. Certain media reports suggest he is re-appointed as Crime Management Co-ordinator of the Gambia Police Force, a position he once held before being appointed as IGP under former president Jammeh’s regime in June 2008, but this is not true.
Besides, the re-instatement is a demotion for Ensa Badjie both in terms of rank and designation. Badjie who was AIG Demba Sowe’s former boss (IGP) will now work under him as his rank (Commissioner) is below the rank of his former junior, who is now an AIG.
Commissioner Badjie replaces Deputy Commissioner Buba Sarr, who may likely be redeployed as Regional Crime coordinator at the Kanifing Municipality (KM) and deputy commissioner Pateh Bah, who is currently the Regional Crime coordinator at KM, may likely be transferred to the West Coast Region (Brikama) as Regional Crime Coordinator at the discretion of the IGP Mamour Jobe.
It would be recalled that Jesus, upon his return from peacekeeping mission in 2007, was appointed as Police Commissioner for Western Division (Brikama) and he later replaced former Chief Superintendent Demba Sowe (now Assistant Inspector General of Police – AIG) as CMC.
AIG Demba Sowe, who is currently the CMC, was dismissed and detained at the State Central Prison Mile II, sometime in 2007. He was later reinstated into the defunct National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
In July 2015, when former Commissioner of Admin Abdoulie Sanyang was dismissed for the second time alongside with Benjamin Wilson, former IGP, Demba Sowe (former Commissioner at the CIU/Interpol), was re-deployed as Commissioner of Admin.
And in 2017, when Sanyang bounced back as Commissioner of Admin, Sowe was moved back to CIU/Interpol as Commissioner, which is directly under the office of the IGP.
Readers would recall that the newly appointed deputy CMC Ensa Badjie and senior army officers, Lt. Col. Mam Matarr Secka and Major Kuluteh Manneh, were convicted in 2011 but later pardoned by the former president Yahya Jammeh in July 2015.
Badjie also testified recently at the ongoing Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, where he narrated his ordeal in the hands of the former NIA officials under Jammeh’s regime.