One treatment for NDEA and one treatment for ADAMS.
The National Drugs Enforcement Agency (NDEA) was given legitimacy recently through an act of parliament; contrary to standard practice here in Seychelles. For the first time ever a clause in the said law provided members of the Agency with total anonymity. It is now an offence punishable up to three years imprisonment to publish the names of NDEA members. Lawyers have been saying that this provision have been specially inserted in the legislation to prevent the “Weekly” from identifying and publishing the names of certain individuals who abuse their power from time to time given to them under the law as we have been doing recently. We did it to name and shame them for them to stop. It now seems that there is no form of keeping the officers of the NDEA in check as they have been given a carte blanche to kill so to speak, exactly like 007, James Bond. The question many people are asking is why did James Michel bent over backwards to create a law to provide for the complete anonymity of members of this elite squad? Why the same provision was not made applicable to the ADAMS drug squad Squad headed by Mr. Ron Marie? Why is James Michel giving members of the NDEA all the high tech equipments but is not giving the same tools to the ADAMS unit? What is so special about the NDEA? Again it provides disturbing proof that President James Michel and the SPPF favours foreigners over Seychellois as was pointed out by Bernard Pool in the face a face program on SBC. Of course NDEA is headed by an Irish, simply known as Willy, whereas the ADAMS is headed by a Seychellois, Ron Marie? How will the police officers in the drug squad feel now that the NDEA officers are being singled out for special treatment?
Last week a remand prisoner complained to our journalists at the court that he was assaulted by an Irishman during a drugs’ raid. He is still feeling the pain in his ribs due to the blows he received from the IRA man. These are the same people who broke into Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly’s office earlier this year. They are now saying openly that they will close down this publication. They have their mandate directly from State House according to them. The clause in that law which protects the identity of the NDEA’s officers is now totally redundant for two main reasons. Firstly, anyone who wants to know who the members of the NDEA are can come down to court during the hearing of drugs related cases, most of them will be there at one time or another showing off their guns, walkie talkies, muscles and high tech spying gadgets. Secondly, certain local members of the NDEA are bragging openly in bars, to women and elsewhere that they are members of the NDEA, the new elite spy network to replace the notorious State Security, which they say have been moved to Bel Eau and that they (NDEA) are the only agency with exclusive access to State House.According to them the President do not trust the former, as it was a setup inherited from the previous presidency. This is Seychelles and in Seychelles nothing can be kept under wrap for long.
On average the NDEA is reputed to be doing a good job so far. We hope that they do not end up like the ADAMS. There are widespread allegations that members of ADAMS are planting drugs on people they suspect of dealing in drugs.In fact some members of the squad are saying that they have been mandated by State House to do so, in clear exaggeration of their powers. The heavy handed tactics being employed currently by the NDEA and the ADAMS might be having some success, but in the long run it will prove to be counter productive as the criminals are bound to get more sophisticated in evading detection. This publication is totally against the dealing in controlled drugs. However we are also totally against the framing of individuals by the different agencies involved in the war on drugs. It is a dangerous precedent, which might easily get out of hand. The planting of drugs on people suspected of dealing in drugs is not the way forward. This was a political tool used by the SPPF to throw political dissidents behind bars immediately after the coup d’etat. It must not be allowed to rear its ugly head again!