On Thursday March 1st, 2001 seven fire officers charged with the murder of
Ebrima Barry walked out of the High Court free. Ebrima Barry was a grade 10
student at Forster Senior Secondary School, Brikama.
Barry died in police custody after an alleged brutalized encounter with
thugs and bullies wearing uniforms of justice. His parents reported that
their son was beaten, tortured, made to carry cement bags and at one time
choked with the substance.
Justice Kabalata’s ruling was principally based on material presented by
three sources, namely, Inspector Biram Jobe of the police Serious Crime
Unit, Dr. Oldfield’s report addressed to the public prosecutor, Nosa Avan
and Chief Pathologist at the RVH, Dr. Omar Sam’s autopsy report.
The testimony given by Inspector Biram Jobe was that during the course of
his investigation into the case, none of the prosecution witnesses claimed
to have witnessed Ebrima Barry being tortured. Dr Sam in his submitted
report stated that there was no evidence of beatings on the body of the late
Ebrima Barry. He concluded that Ebrima Barry was suffering from chronic
hepatitis. Dr. Oldfield’s findings were said to be the same. Thus there was
nothing in the pathologists’ post mortem that linked Barry’s death to the
accused persons.
Against this background Justice Timothy Kabalata ruled that the prosecution
had woefully failed to prove its case beyond all reasonable doubts. He
acquitted and discharged the accused seven fire officers: Ousman Nyaokey,
Alhagie Secka, Samba Sawo, Wury Jallow, Amadou Badjie, Momodou Colley and
Kebba Conteh.
What is Hepatitis C
Two large groups of viruses infect the liver in man: one group infects
principally the liver, the other group infects the liver and other organs.
The disease caused by the first group goes under the name of classical viral
hepatitis. Thus hepatitis is a disorder involving inflammation of the liver
and chronic hepatitis leads to cirrhosis and liver damage.
Transmission is principally by contaminated blood and blood products.
Intravenous drug users are a group at high risk and to a little extent
sexually promiscuous people may contract the disease. Vertical transmission
(mother-to-baby) is very minimal.
Children don’t die of hepatitis C because in this disease cirrhosis takes
10-20 years to develop and cause death. Viral hepatitis C has a long natural
history with mostly a benign course. Alcohol abuse may exacerbate the
infection and accelerate the disease to cirrhosis.
The questions are then:
i) How old was Ebrima Barry?
ii) Had Ebrima Barry undergone blood transfusion as an infant/child?
iii) Was Ebrima Barry sharing needles?
iv) Was Ebrima Barry very sexually active?
v) Was Ebrima Barry a heavy consumer of alcohol?
Ebrima Barry might have been a so-called ‘sporadic’ case whereby the source
from where he contracted the disease is unknown. He might have been
suffering from a terminal disease, but fact remains that he died in police
custody. And the glaring truth is police officers do not call witnesses when
they unleash terror and inflict pain!
The death of Ebrima Barry whilst under police custody brought with it a
surge of anger, pain and grief. His colleagues turned to the streets to
demonstrate against what they saw as murder. In solidarity with Barry and
another female student who was allegedly raped, they paid with their lives!
On Wednesday/Thursday(10th/11th April), Ebrima Barry’s spirit together with
his colleagues, 12 young people, will be speaking to our conscience as
Gambians! Their tragedy is a glaring manifestation of society in oppression!
Let us in any little way possible show that we care. During these two days
let everyone on this forum send an ’I Care!’ (or any fitting heading
)message to the State House website.
To the ardent supporters of The APRC: Party affiliation aside let these two
days be observed in the memory and spirit of Ebrima Barry and his
colleagues who followed him in death!
To Mr. Pa Modou Gassama: Independent of what anybody may say, the truth is
you are among the very finest engineers our country can boast about. At the
same time i genuinely believe that you are more than the Professional at
Gamtel or the Optimist on Gambia-L. Simply put, you are positively more than
what we read on Gambia-L. You are a Father! I am appealing to you! Let us
observe these two days together by temporarily shelving the great
achievements of the APRC on Wednesday and Thursday. Let us use our time to
formulate a message that depicts a unanimous stance that reads: the sanctity
of life should not be compromised for the material and tangible building of
schools and roads! For if ever there was an eclipse of The Sun Rising in our
West African Jungle, April 10th/11th was proof beyond all reasonable doubt!
Lamin Sanyang
"God grant me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change, the courage
to change the things I can, and the wisdom
to know the difference." -Reinhold Niebuhr
Please excuse the grammar and typo errors! I will not mind a correction!
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