A serious matter
By Sheriff Bojang
Dec 18, 2004, 15


As in the Cat Steven’s song, morning broke and the black birds were singing.
It was Thursday, 16 December. It was a special day for Deyda Hydara,
co-founder and managing editor of The Point newspaper. It was his wife’s
birthday and the 13th anniversary of the founding of his mildly critical
newspaper. For those trammelled by superstition, 13 is an unlucky number.

For example, in the Muslim world, those skilled in the esoteric science of
reading the stars, figures and dates, regard Thursday/Friday +13 as a
cocktail, latent with catastrophe. Oftentimes, when a feast falls on a
Friday, a 13th or both, kings and chieflings would find some lame excuse for
being unavailable.

But such curious science was not for Deyda Hydara. It was going to be a good
Friday... and the new United States ambassador was coming for a visit. He
bathed, ran the comb through his thin greying hair, put on his finest coat,
a lanolin three-buttoned grey coat, white starched shirt and blue silken tie
with starry dots knotted Wellington style.

Deyda entered his blue 1987 190 Mercedes Benz and drove from his Kanifing
South residence to The Point newspaper offices on Garba Jahumpa Road, Bakau.

About 11am, Ambassador Joseph D Stafford arrived accompanied by his public
diplomacy officer, the writer, Nana Grey-Johnson. He was shown around and
had some chat with The Point staff. There was optimism in the air, a good
dose of cheer and bonhomie.

“We are celebrating our 13th anniversary today and although they say 13 is
an unlucky number, we are serene and determined to continue our work and
struggle for freedom of the press [and expression]...” Deyda told the
ambassador and the members of his staff gathered, his English accented and
his brown, beefy face breaking into his trademark benign smile.
It was his swan song.

Ambassador Stafford left and Deyda set to work on the Friday edition of his
paper. Tens of well-wishers called to felicitate him and his staff on a
happy anniversary.
Later in the evening, the food and the drink arrived and the party began. It
was to be someone’s last supper. Everyone was there except reporter Justice
Darboe who was either piffed at the absence of his favourite beer or was
drafting a speech he wanted to read out in his self-glorified capacity as
the head of the newsroom.
By the time he showed up, the food, the drinks and all the revellers had
gone home. Seeing his sorry state, Mr Hydara gave him a D50 note and
dismissed him.
He then checked on the proofs of the pages of Friday edition before asking
some of his staff whether they would be needing the usual lift home.

His secretary, Nyang Jobe got in the front seat beside him, while another
secretary Ida Jagne-Joof and janitor Buba Janneh took the back seat. They
sped along Kairaba Avenue, took the detour at the Westfield main junction,
branched off right and took the annex road that runs past the Old
Cooperative compound, KMC headquarters, Gamcel building before halting at
the PIU barracks end.

Janneh alighted the car and Mr Hydara turned right at the junction with the
11 posts and drove on an unlit street that turns out to be a cul-de-sac with
a mosque at the end. But, before reaching the mosque, just about 200 metres
from the Mamadi Maniyang Highway, past the Police Vehicle Workshop and Test
Driving Centre by the wall of Cosmos/Afro Hong Kong Industrial Company, just
before the offices of Kombo Meat Produce, Mr Hydara slowed down to give way
to an accelerating vehicle revving behind him and as the vehicle paced him,
shots rang out, pumping into his car.

He swerved, lost control and his blue Benz ran into high dry shrubs,
crashing into the metre deep drainage ditch before screeching to a halt 10
metres away, the blue paint of the car pockmarking the inner concrete walls
of the ditch.

The crescent moon bathed the night in silvery hue as the light balmy breeze
sucked the forbidden fumes of the nearby brewery. Vehicles came and men took
the body away. In the morning, the news broke: Deyda Hydara was shot to
death. A bullet in the head, a bullet in the chest, a bullet in the stomach.
He was laying in the frozen chambers of the RVTH mortuary. The two ladies in
the car were in the hospital, receiving treatment for gunshot wounds to
their legs. Friday was not a palindrome. It was a bad day for Deyda Hydara.
His patriotic ideals of sacrifice and gallantry perished in the terror of a
trench.

In the evening, after the post-mortem, the body of Deyda Hydara was wrapped
in the simple shroud of white linen and taken to the Independence Drive
Mosque where hundreds of sympathisers, among them, his family members,
friends, colleagues, cabinet members and the imam ratib of Banjul, eulogised
and prayed for his departed soul before accompanying the body to its last
resting place at the Old Jewswang Cemetary.
]
Talking to anyone yesterday, they would ask: “ Is it true, is it really
true?”
I didn’t believe it myself until I saw the cold, bloodied body and even
then, it took a while before the impact of the reality sank in. What
happened on Thursday night to Deyda Hydara is just too monstrous and
barbarous to be believed. It is too vicious, too brutal, too alien. We
Gambians do not know such evil. That’s why we are all shocked and that is
why we should all speak out in the strongest voice and curse and condemn the
evil and the evil livers who perpetrated this heinous crime. We should speak
out so that we snuff out this evil from among our midst just as the same
evil snuffed out the life of Deyda Hydara on that lonely Kanifing road.

Those who killed Deyda are criminals who committed a most foul crime and
every crime has a motive. Who killed Deyda? What is the motive for the
crime? Who would profit from his death? The answers could be many.

But the tongues are wagging and the fingers are pointing. And if you do not
know what the tongues are saying and where the fingers are pointing at, I
will say it here. People are saying agents of the state killed Deyda. Ask
them why and they will tell you because he writes critical things about the
government in his newspaper.

But there are those who criticise the government with greater vehemence, yet
they have not been killed. So why him? Ask this question and you ask a
rhetorical one. No one will volunteer an answer. People will believe what
they want to believe. And especially since Hamat Bah stood in the National
Assembly and called out the names of people he said burnt down the printing
press of The Independent newspaper, and the state failed to counter his
assertions with any convincing rebuttal of fact, the state would be the
prime suspect for any targetted attack on journalists.

The inability of state agents to investigate and bring to book through
diligent prosecution those faceless people who are letting loose unbriddled
brigandage on Gambians does not paint them in good pictures.

That is why they should do everything possible to find out who killed Deyda
Hydara, out them and make them pay for their heinous crime. What happened on
Thursday night is too much. It must be stopped!

© Copyright 2003 by Observer Company

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE!
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤