The government’s spokesperson Ebrima Sankareh has disclosed that the Barrow administration has removed several non-Gambians who were enlisted in the country’s armed forces by the former regime.

“Several non-Gambians who were allegedly enlisted in the armed forces by the previous regime have been removed since President Adama Barrow came to power,” Sankareh told journalists at a press conference on Friday organised to update Gambians on the security sector reform.

He said a specific case was that of “one Omar Sarjo who enlisted into GAF with fake credentials, trained and served until he was finally dismissed and voluntarily left the sources of Gambia. Sarjo now lives in his native village Casamance in Southern Senegal.”

Mr Sankareh said Sarjo was a guy who lived in Marakissa for so long and then used his familiarity with Marakissa to be enlisted in the National Army. All the credentials he presented were Gambian credentials.

“you know how things go here, you can just go because people are so hospitable you get a birth certificate and one document to another. But when the Barrow presidency came to power, they decided to do a thorough vetting process and it was in that process that Sarjo and several others were actually identified and removed,” he clarified.

Asked to disclose the number, the government mouthpiece argued that for security reasons it is not advisable to be very specific with figures sometimes.

Sankareh also hailed his government’s transformation from the past, arguing that there is no more state sanctioned banditry in the country.

According to the minister of Defence, Sheikh Omar Faye a lot is going on and the security sector reform is not only about the army,there were a lot of problems with the army but the reform is focusing on all security forces in the country.

The Minister of Interior, Yankuba Sonko said the security forces under his ministry are undergoing serious transformation in terms of training and infrastructure especially in the country’s prisons.

“We are conducting a lot of training for our prison and police officers on the basis of international standards procedure. The security sector reform is a work in progress but a security that was completely dismantled, you don’t expect that to be fixed in a short period of time.” He revealed that the process is in fact a continuous one.

By: Sainabou Jasseh