All the security apparatus in The Gambia - the army,
the police including the police intervention unit, and the fire and rescue
services – have been stopped from marrying each other.
A security source has told this paper that the
Ministry of Interior has issued a circular to all the national security
agencies banning all officers of the same security unit from marrying each
other.
The public relations officers of the Gambia Fire and
Rescue Services and the Gambia Armed Forces have confirmed the new development,
although the Police could not be reached for their comments.
According to the security source, the reason for such
a move is “to maintain discipline and efficiency at work in the security.”
The source said, for instance, if a female officer
does anything wrong or acts contrary to rules and norms of the security
apparatus, effective disciplinary actions will hardly be taken against that
officer if she happens to be the wife of the senior officer in charge of that
station or guard post.
And if other senior officers happen to effect
disciplinary actions on the wife, it hardly goes down well with the husband and
could bring enmity between the husband and the officer(s) who effect the
punishment.
Again, the source said, there is likelihood that the
wife will be reluctant to take orders from his husband by virtue of their
relationship.
However, previously officers of all other security
units were allowed to marry from within the same unit except officers of the Fire
and Rescue Services who have been maintaining the colonial law.
In a similar vein, as part of the same circular from
the Ministry of Interior, henceforth married female officers are now prohibited
from getting pregnant before the first two years of their recruitment into the
security unit.
It is said this is done to make the female officers
to work for at least two years to get more experience before getting pregnant “because
when you are pregnant as an officer, you cannot work actively and security needs
activeness”.
