The Independent Published Friday, November 9, 2001


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As house search leads to unlicensed gun, "classified documents" NIA react to
Dominic Mendy Ex-minister dismisses allegations of subversive activiti
The National Intelligence Agency have reacted sharply to Dominic Mendy who
claimed in an interview with The Independent last week that his arrest was
linked to statements he made about the groundnut industry. A senior official
of the NIA said the points Mr. Mendy advanced as reasons for his arrest were
misleading and beside the issue. He maintained that the agency never accused
Mr. Mendy of making statements of sabotage against the government. Instead
he revealed that the NIA’s arrest of the former minister was prompted by
information they had received that he was “mobilizing some people to
destabilise the country”.

The senior NIA personnel indicated that those information had pointed to
subversive activities being allegedly planned by Dominic Mendy in cahoots
with an unnamed group to create a situation of insecurity in the country. He
also claimed that during a search of the ex-minister’s house by personnel of
the agency, an unlicensed revolver was discovered, which Mr. Mendy said
belonged to his wife’s grandfather but which the NIA argued strongly
suggests his involvement in a subversive campaign against the state.

The official also pointed out that the National Intelligence Agency were in
possession of “solid evidence” that Mr. Mendy had failed to handover some
“classified” state documents to the government following his removal from
office two years ago. The NIA said his failure to turnover the documents
could not be explained, although they maintained that the documents were the
rightful property of the state and it was wrong for him to keep the document
as a private citizen.

However, Mr. Mendy denied that the items found by the NIA in his house were
state documents. He claimed that they were his personal files and documents
on the Think Tank committee that charged with formulating Vision 2020 and
old newspapers carrying information about the crude oil saga. Mr. Mendy was
the chairman of the Think Tank and the architect of Vision 2020. The former
minister also claimed that the revolver discovered in his house was an old
and rustic gun, which originally belonged to his late father-in-law who
bequeathed it to his (Dominic’s) wife. He also dismissed NIA allegations,
connecting him to subversive activities against the government. “How can I
be involved in subversive activities against the government of which I was a
co-founder. I cannot destroy what I have already created” he emphasised.

Mr. Mendy said since his removal from office on January 1 1999 he has been
living a quiet life as private citizen and a businessman interested in the
peace and tranquility of the country. He said as a controller of an
enterprising business he could only be interested in The Gambia’s peace and
stability for the thriving of his enterprise. Mr. Mendy who said he would
not describe four days under NIA custody as harassment, pointed out that
since he left government there has never been a strain of bad blood between
them, adding that his recent experience was not enough to overwhelm his
positive appraisal of the APRC government.

He was however, quick to add that he was never an active politician but was
serving the state as a technocrat. Although he agreed that his detention for
more than 72 hours was an infringement of his constitutional rights as a
Gambian, he was not interested in challenging the state in that regard.

In an earlier interview Dominic Mendy had claimed that he was arrested and
held by the NIA for four days without charge. He told The Independent that
he was accused of remarks which sabotage the government, a claim he denied,
saying it was a surprise that innocuous statements he had made at a
stakeholders’ workshop at the Kairaba Beach hotel regarding the groundnut
industry were trumped up as the causes of his arrest.






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