My Fellow Gambians,
As we enter the new year, i wish every member of
the post a long life and progressive 2005. We should
also continue to pray for our departed colleague
Deyda Hydara. He died on a just cause. We should
make it as a point of duty, in our day to day
gatherings to observe one minute silence for Hydara. We
also wish speedy recovery for Ida Jagne and Nyan Jobe.
We hope and pray that the almighty God will
preserve their lives and protect the Gambian independent
media from this hostile and undemocratic Jammeh
administration.
Fellow Gambians, enemies of freedom in our dear country will
be defeated sooner or later. Let us remain united in our
quest to restore democracy in our fragile country. The
struggle will continue despite moves by the current
administration to silence dissent and freedom. The year
2004 was characterised by murders, attempted assassinations,
arrests, torture, abductions arson attacks and the butcher
of our National constitution. The perpetrators of these
heinous crimes are walking scot free in the streets of
Banjul and it environs. They are provided blanket
immunity by Jammeh not to face any prosecution. They
are licensed to kill Gambians with impunity.
The killing of Deyda Hydara in my mind was calculated
to scare the private press from exposing Jammeh's dubious
plans of rigging the pending 2006 polls. The regime
will do everything possible to cling to power,
even though it no longer enjoyed public support.
As a senior editorial staff of the Point newspaper, i
could vividly remember the late Deyda Hydara drawing my
attention to a statement made by president Yahya Jammeh
in Brikama in his so called "Dialogue With The People
Tour" that his critics making noise will not be a
living witnesses of the 2006 polls. Based on this alarming
threats, i was assigned by Hydara to solicit
reaction from the opposition. Femi Peters of the
United Democratic Party (UDP) was interviewed and this what
he had to say" Jammeh's threats of killing us is serious
and he Jammeh should be held responsible for the killing
of any member of the opposition. We are concerned about
his pronouncements and we are not taking it lightly".
Little did Deyda Hydara knows that his life was on the line
at the time. Hydara was a great lover of freedom and
hate to see Jammeh's statement go unchallenged. I can
remember him telling me "Pa Nderry you should talk to
the opposition to find out how they feel about Jammeh's
threats. It should be documented for the purpose of
posterity. These boys are capable of doing anything.
This is a worrying statement."
Now the questions right thinking minded Gambians are asking
are " Was Deyda Hydara among those targeted by
dictator Yahya Jammeh for elimination? Was this killing
a pre-election message for the opposition and Gambians in
general? We hope Jammeh will help us with the answers to
these questions.
Deyda was on record for having said in one of his
writes-up that he and his editorial staff were targeted for
possible killing. "You can bring your machetes, rocket
launchers, AK 47 rifles and ammo tanks, but will continue
to publish the truth" Hydara said in response to a
tussle with the the Gambian army. He was at logger
heads with the army spokesman Captain Bunja Darboe over news
torture stories against the GNA published by the Point.
Few months prior to his death, Deyda was also threatened
by a Swiss National contracted by Yahya Jammeh to manage the
Kairaba Hotel, which was sold to the Kuwaiti multimillionaire
Muhammed Karaffi. The swiss national was apparently
angered by a story carried by the point that he was held by
the NIA over certain business activities relating to the sold
hotel. He sent a rejoinder to the point describing the
paper as a "Tapalapa" newspaper and vowed to deal with Deyda
if he fails to retract his arrest story. The Swiss
manger went as far telephoning Hydara. " The Swiss
national also brags that Jammeh was one his boys and he can do
things with impunity. I could remember writing series of
stories about the swiss man's bad relation with the hotel local
staff. Due to his violence nature, he even fought with one
of his staff members. He even pulled out a gass spray
for the sacked staff.
My Fellow Gambians, I am not trying to link the swiss
National to Deyda's death. But i thought it necessary to
highlight the amount of persecution Deyda suffered in The
Gambia prior to his murder. All these are vital clues
for investigations. I do know that he was not in the
good books of Jammeh and his army. The Point had been on
the forefront in exposing torture related stories linked to the
Gambia National Army. The local beach boys widely known as
bumsters have on numerous occasions stormed our offices with
injuries on their bodies claiming to be victims of army
brutality. The Point never hesitated in publishing their
claims. Deyda will always refer such complainants to me for
interview. Our office is kind of a police station,
because Gambians and non-Gambians alike will come with all kinds
of complaints against the state. I can remember
receiving two Sierra Leonian refugees in my office complaining
that they were nearly tortured to death by the National
Guards. They were accused of harbouring a man who was
being trailed by the Army.
My Fellow Gambians, Deyda died in the cause of serving his
country. He had sacrificed his life to defend the poor
and the voiceless. Confronting a dictatorship is not an
easy task, but with unity and determination, we will emerge
victorious one day. God bless The Gambia and her people.
_________________________________________________________________
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