The communications officer of the Pastef party indicates that one can dress in a police uniform without being a police officer. His answers yesterday before the investigators were in that sense.
The day Ousmane Sonko was in court, El Malick Ndiaye, writing on Facebook, took « national and international opinion as witness », « that an individual, dressed in the uniform of the Multipurpose Intervention Brigade (Bip), sprayed President Ousmane Sonko with an unknown substance ». He announced that the leader of the Pastef party was going to be evacuated « to a clinic in town, with Lawyer Clédor Siré Ly who was in the same car as him and who was also gassed ». Mr. Ndiaye, an employee at Grande Côte Opérations (Gco), a French company, concluded: “Macky Sall can no longer govern this country with his barbaric methods.”
This post earned him a hearing yesterday at the police, in the presence of his lawyers. And there, Mr. Ndiaye, while acknowledging the authenticity of his publication, denied any harmful intention. He denies having incriminated any element of the police, even going so far as to affirm: “My accusations do not tarnish the police institution, on the contrary, they preserve the image of the police.” On the question of whether he was aware that his post could lead to serious trouble on the part of supporters of Ousmane Sonko, who could have believed that the authorities seek to liquidate their leader, this Pastef party official was content that he did not accuse a Bip agent.
When confronted with evidence that it was a supporter of the Pastef party who poured liquid over Ousmane Sonko, and that the individual in question allegedly told the police that he had done so to protect his leader of the effects of tear gas, El Malick Ndiaye will simply say: « It does not concern me. »
On top of all this, Mr. Ndiaye said he was not present at the scene on the day all these events were happening. He was officially charged yesterday. This happened at the very moment when the director of Suma Assistance was waiting in his cell for his fate to be determined, after being apprehended in Medina Ndiathbé, where he no doubt hoped to escape the vigilance of the police, looking for him to hear about the nature of Ousmane Sonko’s illness.
All the medical staff of the clinic had initially declared that Dr. Babacar Niang was the only one in a condition to speak about the reasons why Sonko was hospitalized, because no other member of the hospital was in charge of him. Besides Mr. Niang there was a “special team” which the police are still trying to track down. These arrests come on top of the many other arrests of activists and supporters of Ousmane Sonko‘s movement, who have been identified for having taken part in the violent demonstrations of Thursday, March 16.
