BANJUL LION CLUB MEDAL AWARDS
WHY STATE GUARDS PRESENCE?
Few months ago, the Banjul based lion club, organised an
awards ceremony. The late Deyda Hydara, a long time
member of the club chaired the ceremony. Speeches
were delivered by Ebou Manneh of the UDP and other
members of the club. I could heard Mr.Hydara
calling the name of one of the club members, prominent
human rights lawyer Ousman Sillah. Mr.Sillah, was not
available to pick up his award. Sillah's absence
was felt by his fellow lioners. His life was
attempted by some thugs in the Gambia.
While at the ceremony, i noticed the presence of some
state Guards. One of them, called Kawsu Camara,
alias "Bombaredeh" I was bid worried about their
presence in the area. It was unusual for such guards to
be in such functions, without Jammeh attending.
A senior journalist working with The News and Report Magazine
can bear me witness of having expressed concern about
the presence of Sgt "Bombaredeh" and his colleagues in the
area.
Knowing the type of soldier SGT "Bombaredeh'" is, he
will execute any assignment given to him. Be it good or
bad assignment he will execute it. All what i am saying
about this guy is a statement of fact. I have good
reasons to fear him, in view of his past encounters
with Banjulians. He droves his vehicle with
impunity in the streets of Banjul without observing basic
traffic codes. Residents of T Road and Leman street
can tell you who is "Bombarman" He had humiliated
many folks in that city, because of his taste for women
and so called loyalty for Jammeh.
NIA QUESTIONS HYDARA AND PAP SAINE
In the early part of 2004, Deyda Hydara and Pap Saine
were summoned for questioning by the NIA. The
interrogation revolves around a commentary written by the
late journalist that the head of State Yahya Jammeh
spent most his time at his farm in his home village
of Kanilai. In that write up Deyda concluded that
dictator Jammeh was not delivering the goods as expected.
He reported that Jammeh was neglecting pressing state
matters . That the Vice president Isatou Njie-Saidy,
usually deputised him in most state functions, which
requires his presence. The NIA insisted that
Deyda's commentary borders on National security and therefore
warned him and Pap to be careful about the type of
stuffs they report in their Newspaper. What security
implications are they talking about here? Jammeh not
attending state functions?
SECURITY SURVEILLANCE AROUND THE
POINT OFFICES
I could remember Deyda telling me that, our office was
placed under surveillance by state security agents. He
said since our stories on Baba Jobe 's 200 Million tax
evasion, he had noticed some strange faces around the
office premises, thus concluding that they were state agents.
I could also remember former Information minister Yankuba
Touray refuting a point story i authored that Baba was
indebted to the state. The minister lied to the Daily
Observer that Baba was a clean man and owed no dime to
The Gambian government. Thanks to Former Finance minister
Famara Jatta, the Point was vindicated. In an
exclusive interview with this writer, he confirmed that
Baba was indeed owing millions of dalasis to the state.
Few weeks after the publication of Fams confirmation
piece, he was fired alongside with the Customs MD Mboge and
other customs officials. Baba was indeed a powerful
man. And who knows if he instructed former police IGP Ebou
Njie or NIA Director Abdoulie Kujabi to mount surveillance
on the Point?
2004 A DIFFICULT YEAR FOR
THE POINT
This was the year in which Deyda was killed. This was
the year, in which Deyda was separated from his family,
friends, colleagues and love ones. This was the year in
which two female Point staffers, Ida Jage and Nyan Jobe
were shot. This was the year in which Jammeh and his
cronies passed a draconian bill to end dissent in The
Gambia. 2004 was the year in which Jammeh vowed to
sentence journalists without of a fine. This was the
year, in which dozens of Point staffers were denied
employment. The temporal closure of the Point is a big
loss to the Gambia. We all know the type of
investigative and comprehensive stories published by this
media House. It will be difficult to fill the vacuum left
by Hydara and the Point in general.
_________________________________________________________________
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